Pumpkin Day in Ukraine

Although we often think of the pumpkin as a vegetable, it is actually a fruit! Up until a certain day, this was a controversial issue. Scientists found a way out of this dilemma when they reconciled the botanical definition of a fruit with the food definition of a vegetable. The genius result: fruit vegetables. Because pumpkin comes out of a pollinated flower, it is a fruit according to the botanical definition. Since it is only grown annually in a bed (or on a balcony :), it is a vegetable by the definition of food - logical conclusion: fruit vegetables.

After sprouting, it takes 90 to 120 days for the pumpkin to reach maturity. Pumpkin flowers are also edible. Pumpkins are 90 percent water. It can safely be called one of the attributes of fall.

Recall that the National Pumpkin Day is celebrated on October 26 in the United States and parts of Canada. Pumpkin is used to make soups, desserts and breads, and many Americans include pumpkin pie in their Thanksgiving meals. Carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns is a popular Halloween tradition that originated hundreds of years ago in Ireland.

It is also impossible to imagine Ukraine without pumpkin. In Ukraine the Pumpkin Day falls on November 30. Ukrainian ethnographer Alexander Kurochkin connects the Pumpkin Day with the Day of Saint Andrew, which falls on November 30. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of many places, including several countries around the world, including Barbados, Romania, Scotland, Spain and Ukraine.