Weirdest American Holiday Traditions

Jordana Weiss | December 19, 2018

Pumpkin Chucking

If you’ve never heard of pumpkin chucking, or punkin chunkin, depending on your region, you’re missing out on a uniquely American experience. Pumpkin chucking is a competition to see who can toss a pumpkin the furthest distance, using anything from a trebuchet to a cannon.

The World Championship Punkin Chunkin has been held since 1986 in Delaware and is a huge community event with multiple categories including Air Cannon, Trebuchet, Catapult, and Human Powered. There are lots of rules to govern pumpkin chucking, but the most important is that a pumpkin has to remain whole until it hits the ground; if it bursts mid-air, it’s known as ‘pie’ (as in, pie in the sky). It’s a ridiculous spectacle, but there is something pretty fun about seeing a very un-aerodynamic pumpkin flying through the air.

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