Pumpkin or jerimum, the fruit of the pumpkin, is a popular designation attributed to several species of plants of the family Cucurbitaceae (order Cucurbitales ), namely those classified in the genera:
Pumpkins are grown all over the world for a variety of reasons, from agricultural purposes (such as animal feed) to commercial and ornamental sales. Of the seven continents, only Antarctica is unable to produce pumpkins. The traditional American pumpkin used for Halloween is the Connecticut field variety.
Pumpkins carved out of a jack-o’-lantern for Halloween.
Pumpkins are popularly carved into decorative lanterns called jack-o’-lanterns during the Halloween season. This tradition originated in Great Britain and Ireland, where turnips, beets and rutabagas were used.
The practice of carving pumpkins on Halloween originated from an Irish myth about a man named ” Stingy Jack “. The turnip is traditionally used in Ireland and Scotland for Halloween, but immigrants from North America used the native pumpkin, which was a lot, facilitating the size of the sculptures. Until 1837, the jack-o’-lantern appears as a term for a carved vegetable lantern, and the association of carved pumpkin lantern with Halloween is registered in 1866.
In the United States, the carved pumpkin was associated with harvest time in general, long before it became a Halloween emblem. In 1900, a Thanksgiving entertainment article recommended a lit jack-o’-lantern as part of festivities that encourage children and families to come together to make their own jack-o’-lanterns.
The association of pumpkins during the harvest season and pumpkin pie on Canadian and American Thanksgiving Day reinforce the iconic role of the pumpkin. The Starbucks turned this association in marketing with your latte spice for pumpkin, introduced in 2003. This led to a remarkable trend in food products with pumpkin flavor and spices in North America. This is despite the fact that Americans rarely buy whole pumpkins to eat, except when they carve jack-o ‘lanterns. Illinois farmer Sarah Frey is called “the Pumpkin Queen of America” and sells about five million pumpkins a year, predominantly for use as lanterns.