A Gourd Ol’ Song: Classic Virginia Carving Voted Best Jack-O’-Lantern

Halloween is a major event at the University of Virginia. In the days before thousands of local children arrive for Trick-or-Treating on the Lawn, UVA community members transform the Academical Village into a spooky wonderland. Decorations flourish around Grounds and pumpkin carving becomes a celebrated art form.

This year, UVA Today recognized the artistic talents of all those Wahoo pumpkin artists with the inaugural UVA-themed jack-o’-lantern contest. On Oct. 23, Cavaliers across Charlottesville and beyond were invited to submit photos of their best UVA pumpkin creations throughout the week using the hashtag #GourdOleSong.

With a bookstore gift card and a year of bragging rights on the line, the competition was fierce.

The winning entry came from second-year students Jess Miller and May Hu. (Photo courtesy of Jess Miller)

UVA’s Facebook followers voted over the weekend for a winner by “liking” photos of their favorite pumpkin. Although it was a tight race, an intricate rendering of the University seal emerged as the winner.

Second-year students Jess Miller and May Hu carved the pumpkin together and said that it took them about three hours to complete their design.

“This is the first pumpkin I’ve ever carved that wasn’t just a face, and the first one May and I carved together,” Miller said. “We knew we wanted to do something UVA-themed, and I just thought the seal would be really cool, and something not a lot of people may have seen before.”

Initially, Miller and Hu were just hoping to have some fun and maybe get some compliments from neighbors, so they were pleasantly surprised when their gourd quickly rose to internet fame on UVA’s Facebook page. It garnered first place with 261 likes.

The University seal was followed closely in second place by the jack-o’-lantern likeness of popular UVA men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett. The Bennett pumpkin earned 232 likes and was one of two gourds to pay homage to Cavalier basketball.

See all of the submissions on the University's Facebook page.

One fan sent in a joking pumpkin memorial to the famous “man bun” hairstyle worn by second-year men’s basketball player Kyle Guy throughout his first season with the Cavaliers. Guy’s distinctive hairstyle was a fan favorite and briefly had its own comedic Twitter account before Guy cut it off over the summer.  

Other #GourdOleSong submissions included three different takes on the Rotunda, the classic V-Sabres logo, a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and a ’Hoos owl.

All participants will receive a T-shirt for sending in their photos and readers can check out all the Wahoo pumpkins by scrolling through the full Facebook album.