You're wandering through a dark oak forest at night. Creepers are hissing behind trees, and you can barely see two blocks in front of your face. Torches are fine, sure, but they look a bit... basic. If you want to light up your base with some actual personality, you need to know how to make a pumpkin lantern in minecraft. Most people call them Jack o'Lanterns because, well, that's what they are.
They’re actually one of the most underrated blocks in the game.
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Unlike torches, these things work underwater. You can submerge them to light up a coral reef or a sugarcane farm moat without the light popping off and floating to the surface. It's a game-changer for builds. But first, you've gotta find the raw materials, and that's usually where the headache starts if you didn't get a lucky spawn.
Finding the Orange Gold: Where Pumpkins Hide
You can’t just craft a pumpkin from seeds and dirt. You have to find them. They usually sprout in grassy biomes. Look for plains, forests, or even mountains. They spawn in clusters. If you’re lucky, you might stumble across a Taiga village where they’re already growing in the garden patches.
Sometimes you'll find them in Woodland Mansions. Those places are terrifying, though. Honestly, just stick to wandering the plains until you see that bright orange block.
Once you find one, don’t just punch it and leave. Use an axe to speed things up, then grab the seeds. You’ll want to start a farm immediately because hunting for wild pumpkins every time you want to build a lantern is a massive waste of time. To grow them, remember they need an empty block next to the stem to actually "spawn" the fruit. If you surround the stem with other crops, nothing happens. It’s a common mistake that leaves players staring at green stems for days.
The Shears Secret: Carving Your Face
Here is the part where people get stuck. You can't just throw a pumpkin and a torch into a crafting table. If you try that, the grid stays empty.
You have to carve the pumpkin first.
Grab two iron ingots. Place them diagonally in your crafting grid to make Shears. Now, place your pumpkin on the ground. Don't hold it in your hand; it has to be a physical block in the world. Equip your shears and right-click (or use your secondary action button) on the face of the pumpkin.
Pop.
A spooky face appears. You’ll also get some pumpkin seeds dropping on the ground, which is a nice little bonus for your farm. Now, use your tool to break the carved pumpkin and pick it up. You’ve now moved one step closer to figuring out how to make a pumpkin lantern in minecraft. This carved version is actually wearable, by the way. If you put it in your helmet slot, Endermen won't attack you when you look at them. You’ll have a limited field of vision, but it's a life-saver in the End.
Bringing the Light: The Crafting Recipe
Now for the easy part. You only need two things in your 3x3 crafting grid:
- One Carved Pumpkin.
- One Torch.
Open your crafting table. Place the Carved Pumpkin in the center slot. Put the Torch directly underneath it. That’s it. You’ll see the Jack o'Lantern appear in the result box.
You can also do this in your inventory's 2x2 crafting square. It doesn't require a full table because it's such a simple recipe. Just put the pumpkin on top and the torch on the bottom. If you flip them, it won't work. Minecraft is picky like that sometimes.
Why Jack o'Lanterns Beat Torches Every Time
Look, torches are cheap. I get it. But Jack o'Lanterns have a light level of 15. That is the highest light level in the entire game. For comparison, a Soul Torch only puts out a light level of 10. Even a standard torch is only a 14.
If you are trying to prevent mobs like zombies or skeletons from spawning in a specific area, that extra point of light actually matters. It covers a slightly larger radius. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, the underwater factor is huge. You can’t put a torch on the floor of the ocean. It’ll just turn into an item. But a pumpkin lantern? It stays perfectly bright. It’s the best way to light up a drowned-farm or an underwater base without using expensive Sea Lanterns from a Guardian temple.
Advanced Placement: Not Just for Porches
Most players just stick these on the ground. Boring.
You can use them as "hidden" lighting. Dig a hole in the floor, place the lantern, and put a carpet over it. The light still shines through the carpet! This lets you have a perfectly lit room without having ugly torches cluttering up the walls.
You can also use them to build Snow Golems or Iron Golems. A Snow Golem is just two snow blocks with a carved pumpkin (or lantern) on top. An Iron Golem is a T-shape of four iron blocks with the pumpkin on top. Note: In the Bedrock edition, you can use a Jack o'Lantern to make a golem, but in some older Java versions, it specifically had to be a carved pumpkin without the light. Always check your version if the golem won't "wake up."
Troubleshooting Common Issues
If you’re trying to follow the steps for how to make a pumpkin lantern in minecraft and things aren't working, check these three things:
- Is it a "Carved" Pumpkin? A regular, smooth pumpkin cannot be crafted into a lantern. If there isn't a face on it, the recipe won't trigger.
- Are you using a regular Torch? Soul Torches (the blue ones) or Redstone Torches will not work. It has to be the standard coal/charcoal and stick variety.
- Is the block broken? If you place a lantern and then water flows over it, it will break. It can be placed underwater, but it can’t handle a moving water source block hitting it from the side.
Efficiency Tips for Large Builds
If you are building a massive castle and need hundreds of these, don't carve them one by one. Set up a line of pumpkins on the ground. Walk down the line holding your shears and spam the right-click button. You can carve a whole stack in seconds.
Then, use a piston-based farm to harvest the pumpkins automatically. You can find plenty of designs by technical players like Mumbo Jumbo or Ilmango that use observers to detect when a pumpkin grows. It pushes it into a hopper stream, and all you have to do is show up once an hour to collect the loot.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Session
Start by crafting shears before you even find the pumpkins. You'll need them anyway. Once you find a patch, carve at least five of them on the spot so you get the seeds for your farm.
Go home and set up a 10x10 pumpkin patch. Remember: Water block in the middle, then tilled soil, then a row of seeds, then a row of solid dirt for the pumpkins to grow on. Once you have a steady supply, replace all the torches in your main hallway with Jack o'Lanterns hidden under moss or carpet. It'll instantly make your base feel more professional and less like a temporary dirt shack.
If you're feeling adventurous, take a stack of these lanterns down to a ravine. Since they are solid blocks, you can use them as a bridge and a light source at the same time. It saves inventory space and keeps the mobs away while you mine for diamonds.