Pumpkin boat race

PUMPKIN BOAT RACE Paddling giant pumpkins for canoes, contestants race around a lake at the Tualatin Pumpkin Regatta in Oregon. Held every fall, such events are hugely popular not just in the US but also countries including Canada and Germany. Pumpkins are easily converted into boats, since they are already partly hollow inside, making it a simple task to carve out space for a rower to sit inside.

Developing from star-shaped, yellow flowers, the bigger varieties of pumpkins can swell rapidly to enormous sizes— some measure more than 13 ft (4 m) around the middle and weigh 992 lb (450 kg). In the Tualatin race, competitors wearing costumes and life jackets paddle their pumpkins 295 ft (90 m) and back. Pumpkins are also the main attraction in a variety of other holidays and festivals. American families gather every year for Thanksgiving, which is famous for its pumpkin pie. At Halloween, on October 31 each year, children in many countries carve out pumpkins to look like scary or funny faces, then put a candle inside to give them an eerie glow, to frighten off evil spirits.