Where in the world...: Halloween Pumpkins

My hosts for this year's Halloween festivities were Tammy and Adam, in their fantastically decorated house for the evening. Everyone got into the costume spirit with a full on spider, skeleton complete with beating heart, a cat and a selection of scary/Halloween coloured or inspired outfits. We all brought carved pumpkins that looked great lit up and all lined up outside the house. I'm not a big fan of the scary side of Halloween, I'm just a big woose when it comes to anything a little freaky, I still like to get involved.

Entries into the pumpkin carving contest.

The winner is..... the witch, carved by Penny.

The UK's Halloween celebrations aren't quite as extravagant as in the USA, according to an article from the BBC, the USA is expected to spend nearly four billion pounds on Halloween festivities, while the UK is expected to spend just a sixteenth of what the USA might spend. Although this is a lot less than the USA, within the UK it is a twenty three fold increase on the amount spent on Halloween in 2001. Just going into food shops, it's obvious that retailers are putting more Halloween stock on the shelves for what is traditionally part of the Celtic festival, Samhain.

ASDA had to have had the cheapest carving pumpkins for sale at only a pound each, how the farmers or anyone in the supply chain make any money from that pound is beyond me. As my pumpkin was advertised as a 'carving pumpkin' I can only assume it was bred to be bigger, soft to cut and not really to be eaten. Saying that, it was a good size, relatively easy to cut and all the insides are now sitting on the compost heap.