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Stack of lighted orange coloured carved natural Halloween jack-o-lantern pumpkins at outdoor night
The Fastest Pumpkin Carver Set A Mind-Blowing Record
By CHRIS LITTLECHILD
History - Science
For many around the world, Halloween celebrations are incomplete without meticulously carving a pumpkin into a Jack O' Lantern (or lots of them). It can be a slow and challenging process, but there are some people who dedicate themselves to carving pumpkins as quickly as possible.
According to Guinness World Records, the fastest recorded time to carve a single pumpkin is 16.47 seconds, which was accomplished by Stephen Clarke in October 2013. As there's a lot of potential ambiguity in the instruction to "carve a pumpkin," the outlet set clear parameters for the record attempt: a pumpkin was considered finished only when it had eyes, a mouth, ears, and a nose.
Later, Clarke attended a Fall Party in October 2020, where he carved a single pumpkin in a truly mind-blowing 9.4 seconds. A teacher in Philadelphia, Clarke told Craft Beer, "I didn't grow up wanting to be a pumpkin carver, but it's something I've always loved and was good at, so I tell my students to make the most of the things you're good at."