Cuando llega el mes de octubre is a Halloween song in Spanish taught to all kids in Puerto Rico. This song doesn’t talk about monsters or ghosts, it’s about a jack-o’-lantern.
Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean where the traditional orange pumpkin doesn’t grow and, consequently, pumpkin carving is nonexistent. The song Cuando llega el mes de octubre is only known in Puerto Rico and describes the process of carving a pumpkin by a kid.
Here are the lyrics of the song plus a video of my first experience making a pumpkin for Halloween:
“Cuando llega el mes de octubre” Song in Spanish
Cuando llega el mes de octubre,
corro al huerto de mi casa
y busco con alegría
tres o cuatro calabazas.
Las preparo, las arreglo.
Saco todas las semillas,
le hago unos ojos grandes
y una boca que da risa.
Mucho, mucho me divierto
con todas mis calabazas
y a todos mis amiguitos
invito a jugar a casa.
This translates to: “When the month of October is here, I run to my house’s garden and look with happiness for three or four pumpkins. I prepare and arrange them. I take out all the seeds and make big eyes and a mouth that makes you laugh. I have so much fun with all my pumpkins and invite all my friends to play at home.”
A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to make my first jack-o’-lantern. That year I spent several weeks during the fall on the east coast of the United States, most of the time at my in-laws in Virginia. There I had the opportunity to carve a traditional Halloween pumpkin following the instructions of that song I learned as a child.
How was my experience? First, carving a pumpkin is not as easy as the song describes. The part that says “I run to my house’s garden” was not true, in this case we bought it in a market. In addition, finding “three or four pumpkins” is not realistic considering that this weighed about 10 pounds and I could barely carry it. The easiest was the part of “taking out all the seeds.” As I mentioned before, this was my first time making a jack-o’-lantern, so I’d never seen a pumpkin inside. I thought that a pumpkin of this size would be full of seeds, but it turns out to be pretty empty. As for the “big eyes and a mouth that makes you laugh” I must confess that my husband Jared helped to avoid losing any of my fingers. I must admit that carving a pumpkin is hard, but I had just as much fun as the kid described in the song I learned.
Here is a video of the pictures of my first jack-o’-lantern and the song Cuando llega el mes de octubre:
A Pumpkin Carving Song in Spanish Video and Printable
If you are a Spanish teacher that would like to teach your kids this song, you can download the activity to use in class here.