Punkie Night

Today is the last Thursday of the month and that means it's time for Punkie Night in Hinton St George, Somerset.

The tradition goes back over 100 years, when it is said that the men from Hinton travelled to the fair at the nearby village of Chiselborough. When they didn’t return as promised, the women of the village went looking for their husbands with mangold lanterns (a mangold, or mangelwurzel, is a crop grown by farmers for cattle feed – a cross between a turnip and a pumpkin). The women pulled these up from the fields, carved them out and put candles in them to shed light, and then walked the four miles to Chiselborough, in search of their drunken husbands. Some claim that the different designs people carved allowed them to be identified in the dark.

To commemorate the event local children still hollow out their mangolds, carving designs or faces onto the outside. The makers of the best lanterns - by male and female - become the Punkie King and Queen. Then, in the evening, candles are lit and the 'punkies' are paraded through the village while singing:

It's Punkie Night tonight.

It's Punkie Night tonight.

Adam and Eve would not believe

It's Punkie Night tonight.

Give me a candle, give me a light.

If you don't you'll get a fright!

'Punkie' is an old English name for a lantern - probably derived from 'pumpkin' or 'punk', a dialect word meaning tinder. In earlier times, farmers would put a traditional punkie on their gates to ward off evil. spirits at this time of year.

The Punkie Night Facebook Group is here.