Battle of the Blazing Pumpkins

What started as a small fall festival in 1991 with 600 lit pumpkins grew in size until Keene NH held the Guinness Book of World Record of having the most lit jack-o-lanterns. In 2003 Keene NH set the world record for having the most lighted pumpkins in one spot boasting 28,952 lit pumpkins. Not bad for a town with a population of 22,778. In 2003, Keene had more pumpkins then people.

Boston decided three years ago to try to out do Keene and they had 16,000 in 2004. In 2005, Boston still fell short with 24,500 lit jack o-lanterns. However, this year they came after Keene to an unusual vengeance and threw Keene out of the Guinness Book of World Records with 30,128 blazing pumpkins. Boston with a population of 560,000 still found it necessary to call on US Senator Edward M. Kennedy and US Representative Martin T. Meehan to help carve pumpkins with students at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell on Thursday prior to the event.

The killer of this story is that Boston has to truck in their pumpkins and had 900 volunteers (does this include Kennedy and Meehan?). Although Keene asked all those attending the free event to bring a carved pumpkin the plea was mainly unheard by 24,682 participants out of 80,000 that attended the event in Keene.

Both events were fundraisers for charity and in the end everyone won. However, I am putting out a plea for the underdog, Keene NH. It was their idea, they did it first and they do not have politicians carving their pumpkins.