Transcript:

Punkie Nightambience: Punkie Night celebration, voicesThe fourth Thursday in October is Punkie Night in the village of Hinton St. George, in Great Britain. It's a bit like Halloween, but with it's own local twist. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, with a special program from our archives. On Punkie Night, local children join a procession through the village streets, swinging their homemade lanterns, known as punkies, and going house to house, singing and sometimes getting a few pennies at the front door.ambience: Punkie Night songBrian Cornelius is one of the organizers of the Punkie Night festivities. "Well, Punkie Night is an old village tradition of Hinton St. George. It goes back over 100 years, and it was said that the men from the village went to a nearby village of Chiselborough to the fair, and they didn't return as promised, so the women went looking for them with mangold lanterns.""A mangold is a crop grown by farmers for cattle feed. The women of the village pulled these up in the fields, carved them out, put their candles in them to give light, and then proceeded to Chiselborough, which is about 4 miles from here, looking for their husbands at the fair."So nowadays, to commemorate the event, local children hollow out their mangolds - which look like a cross between a turnip and a pumpkin. And they carve designs or faces on the outside, and put candles within. Sound familiar? There's a evening procession of punkies, and a contest for the most original design.ambience: Punkie Night songSo, from Hinton St. George in Great Britain, here's wishing you a happy Punkie Night. I'm Jim Metzner. (this archival program was originally broadcast in 1999)