The pumpkin emoji is a jack-o'-lantern
The pumpkin people copy most is ๐, whose official Unicode name is Jack-o-Lantern. It shows an orange pumpkin with a carved face. Unicode has no separate emoji for a plain, uncarved pumpkin, so ๐ stands in for every pumpkin, from Halloween porch decorations to the pumpkin patch.
Each platform draws it a little differently: the face, the stem and the shade of orange vary between Apple, Google, Samsung and Windows. There is no separate black-and-white pumpkin character either, so for a softer fall look pair ๐ with orange leaves ๐ ๐, or with flat sparkles like โ๏ฝกห for an aesthetic caption.
Where the jack-o'-lantern comes from
Centuries ago in England, "jack-o'-lantern" meant a man carrying a lantern, and the name was also used for the flickering will-o'-the-wisp lights seen over marshes. In Ireland and Scotland, people carved scary faces into turnips and other root vegetables at Halloween. The custom crossed the Atlantic, where the bigger and softer pumpkin took over.
Today ๐ means more than Halloween. People use it for fall in general, pumpkin patches, pumpkin spice drinks โ๏ธ, Thanksgiving pie ๐ฅง, and as a sweet nickname, since "pumpkin" is a common term of endearment.
How to type the pumpkin emoji
On iPhone or Android, open the emoji keyboard and search for "pumpkin" or "jack". On Windows, press Windows + . and type pumpkin; on a Mac, press Control + Command + Space. In HTML you can write 🎃.
Pumpkin pie fans can pair it with ๐ฅง and ๐ฆ for Thanksgiving, which falls on the fourth Thursday of November in the US. For more spooky options, see Halloween symbols and the ghost symbol, or leaf symbols for autumn colors without the face.