Excuse me whilst I jump up and down with glee at this marvelous idea.

Over at Pumpkinrot, one of Rot’s regulars has suggested a splendid way to spread some October cheer: “Jack O’Lanterns left anonymously in lonely places, near abandoned buildings, alongside roads…anywhere that’ll give the passerby a burst of Halloween, and some questions.”

Adam, the originator of the project, has a suggested “calling card” design to be attached to the stem of each lonely Jack; he’s said that he’ll supply Rot with a downloadable file that others can use to stencil a similar card, so keep an eye out for an update on Rot’s post. On the one hand, it seems sort of a shame to do anything that will give away the fact that this is part of a larger project rather than a drive-by pumpkining; but on the other hand it’ll probably keep the pumpkin from being mistaken for a bomb. (Lookin’ at you, Boston.)

If you decide to play along, Adam has one request:

That is that everyone who decides to do this, please use the same name and if possible, please try and use the same tag. I will try and get a file out to Rot somehow and everyone is welcome to use the logos. The point of the project is to create a random “What The Hell?” moment in passers by, and to create a feeling of joy inside people like us when they pass a random Jack in an odd place.

Someone in the comments says that “The photos are going to be great;” I don’t see any mention of an official place to post photos of successful Jack placements, but a #GreatPumpkinProject tag on Instagram would probably work until something more official comes up.

Grab a pumpkin, get out there, and make somebody else’s day a little more surreal!

Update: Adam has posted the label for download here, and included some additional thoughts on the project. (Including a preeetty important one that I hadn’t thought to call out: Don’t use actual fire. “Flameless” LED tea lights are inexpensive and widely available; use those instead.)

(via ShellHawk’s Nest)