As someone living in a normal country where people actually buy and eat pumpkins, the whole concept of buying a food item to destroy for decoration is absolutely alien. I’m glad we don’t have that weird tradition here.
The jack o’ lanterns are composted in the garden if the squirrels and deer don’t get them first. The seeds are roasted for a snack. The guts or whatever you want to call the slimy insides are fed to the ducks. Ain’t nothing wasted.
I’ve seen jack-o’-lanterns in the UK, US, Germany and France, but I haven’t travelled to most of the world and it’s hard to get reliable info about what holidays are celebrated in different countries and how people decorate
Portugal. When I was a kid in school the concept of Halloween as a party was being pushed onto us from by english lessons so the school had some events related to it, like decorating stuff and creating the vibe a little, but it just isn’t a thing. Nowadays I guess it’s more usual to start seeing a bit more things related to it in a few places, like some cool coffee shop or some special cakes in pastries shops, and some events in the big cities, but I guess that’s it. The biggest things may be advertisement around it and some events outside more focused on kids to play around with the theme. We have in some parts of the country a tradition around the same time which is similar to treat-or-trick, but no dressing up or those kinds of things.
As someone living in a normal country where people actually buy and eat pumpkins, the whole concept of buying a food item to destroy for decoration is absolutely alien. I’m glad we don’t have that weird tradition here.
The jack o’ lanterns are composted in the garden if the squirrels and deer don’t get them first. The seeds are roasted for a snack. The guts or whatever you want to call the slimy insides are fed to the ducks. Ain’t nothing wasted.
May I ask what country?
I’ve seen jack-o’-lanterns in the UK, US, Germany and France, but I haven’t travelled to most of the world and it’s hard to get reliable info about what holidays are celebrated in different countries and how people decorate
Portugal. When I was a kid in school the concept of Halloween as a party was being pushed onto us from by english lessons so the school had some events related to it, like decorating stuff and creating the vibe a little, but it just isn’t a thing. Nowadays I guess it’s more usual to start seeing a bit more things related to it in a few places, like some cool coffee shop or some special cakes in pastries shops, and some events in the big cities, but I guess that’s it. The biggest things may be advertisement around it and some events outside more focused on kids to play around with the theme. We have in some parts of the country a tradition around the same time which is similar to treat-or-trick, but no dressing up or those kinds of things.
I searched a bit and this seems a solid answer - https://www.portugalist.com/portugal-halloween/
Anyways, pumpkin is used for food regularly by many people here. Maybe not core ingredient, but some soups and other things use it.