What Do White Pumpkins Mean in Louisiana? Here’s Your Complete Color Guide

Slowly, but surely it is starting to feel like fall here in Louisiana, a little bit that is. Promises of a cold front are just around the corner and fall and Halloween decorations have started to pop up around town.

You may have noticed that some houses display different-colored pumpkins instead of the traditional orange-colored ones we are used to seeing every year. Turns out that different colored pumpkins sometimes signify special meanings depending on what color they are painted. Here's what each one represents.

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Teal Pumpkins

This trend was started by the Food Allergy Research & Education organization to help make people aware of serious food allergies. Teal pumpkins are a reminder that not every kid can eat every treat handed out on Halloween.

Purple Pumpkins

The Purple Pumpkin Project started 10 years ago and its mission each year is to raise awareness for people who suffer from epilepsy.

Pink Pumpkins

The Pink Pumpkin Project is a non-profit started to spread awareness of breast cancer. With over 3.8 million women in the United States having a history of breast cancer there is always a need to remind others to stay aware of it.

Blue Pumpkins

This Halloween, be on the lookout for blue buckets and pumpkins. These signify that the home or child has autism and may not be able to say "trick or treat". The pumpkins encourage conversations about autism while the buckets help people handing out candy to be aware of children who may be non-verbal.

Red Pumpkins

Mothers Against Drunk Driver (MADD) is an organization that raises awareness for their cause by displaying red pumpkins during Halloween.

Yellow Pumpkins

Inspired by the Teal Pumpkin Project, mother Laura Slatter is raising awareness for childhood apraxia of speech, a motor speech disorder that makes it challenging to communicate.

White Pumpkins

This Halloween tradition started after a Facebook post with a poem written by Jennifer Giles, a mother who lost her child, Madelyn. Now white pumpkins are used to represent pregnancy and infant loss.

A beautiful poem by Jennifer Giles

This is the story

Of a pumpkin of white

What is its place on this autumn night?

Amidst all the orange and colors of fall

It seems out of place; not belonging at all

But oh what a place, and oh what a story

You see, in its face lies the image of glory

Of babies so small, so incredibly tiny

Perfect in purpose, their souls shining brightly

No less a baby, a child just the same

As one who was held and called by their name

Was my baby a he?

Or was she a she?

What would my child have grown up to be?

Yet bigger than questions and what ifs and whys

Is the comfort they feel when they look to the skies

For their hope is the truth that they so tightly cling

“I’ll know all the answers, understand everything

on the day that God hands my child back to me”

This pumpkin is sweet baby boys and girls

Who never opened their eyes to this world

Never cried, never feared

Protected from pain

Touched by their innocence

We’re never the same

Lives perfect and pure

All things lovely and sweet

And we honor them here

‘Till heaven we meet

This pumpkin is all of the sweet little ones

Whose lives although short were covered in love

In kisses and snuggles, rocking and playing

Their parents not knowing they wouldn’t be staying

But the time that they had they would never trade

Even if they could be saved from the pain

Their cribs may be empty, but the promise remains

One day they’ll hold their babies again

This pumpkin is for all these sweet angel friends

Whose parents all know this isn’t the end

And how they are doing

Tonight up in heaven

Is better than anything we could imagine

Though we’re missing our children

And we’re still on this side

Our hearts will continue to swell with pride

At the special, the wondrous, the out of place things

Like this white pumpkin, and the joy that it brings

A reminder that our children are more than alive

They are perfectly whole, all things are made right

Angel parents, I know there’s still tears to be shed

But I hope that this pumpkin brings peace instead

Our babies are promised forever in heaven

And that’s the best gift we could ever be given.