Pumpkins above, pumpkins below: 11 things about the Halloween daredevil, that perhaps you have never heard

At least, as far as their knowledge about pumpkins goes, they surely did. Long before the first colonists arrived, they were already familiar with the vegetable, knew how to grow it, and even how to serve it properly. The first Thanksgiving feast was held in 1621, and indeed, pumpkin played an important role on the menu.

If you're hoping to have your own pumpkin by autumn, you'll need to sow the seeds between May and July, as these orange (more orange than any orange) vegetables need around 90-120 days to become an ideal serving.

No, you can't really make freckles disappear with a pumpkin, of course, but there was a time when it was thought that the first part of this very sentence was a lie. In fact, some even believed that the enzymes in it could cure snakebites. In the latter case, however, we would still stick to the official antidote anyway.

Literally. In fact, some say it's safe to feed it to cats, too. Pumpkin has lots of health benefits, including helping the digestive process. But please consult your vet before rushing to give some roasted pumpkin to your most loyal, tail-wagging, four-legged friend!

For many reasons, but right now the main cause you need to understand is because they play a key role in pollinating the blossoms of these vegetables. So, letting them die would be a (pump-)sin.

It's no coincidence that pumpkin seed oil is often referred to as ‘the Green Gold of the Őrség’. It's hard to list just how many benefits it has, but without a doubt, regular consumption will make your body as happy as you are, on the couch, at the end of a long day at work. The vitamin E and zinc in it are the best friends of your hair and skin, but it can also be an effective treatment for joint problems and certain inflammations.

For them, pumpkin lanterns weren't so insp-ire-ing. They did know about them, they just wisely realised that carving a pumpkin causes 'wrist and forearm pain' after a while. The solution was to use potatoes and turnips instead of barely even carvable pumpkins. Of course, it's difficult to carve a hole big enough to fit a candle in a potato but carving figures and faces into the flesh of it is easy as... well, it's easy.

For many years, pumpkin shooting was an annual attraction in Delaware. The giant vegetables were shot up to nearly 1,500 metres with an air cannon, and contestants had to hit them with a rifle. Due to a tragic accident in 2017, the festival almost got shut down, but instead, pumpkins got shot up - again.

One of the things we can thank Cinderella for is that we started to believe in fairy tales. But a way less known advantage of this mentioned fairy tale was the story itself in which the word 'pumpkin' was first described. Before that, the vegetable was known as the giant melon. It's a good thing we have a new name, since 'giant melon carving contest' certainly doesn't sound as inviting.

Could be ’squash’, too, but sadly that’s a sport. Amazingly though, the current record holder is over 1,600 kilograms, achieved by a farmer in New Bremen, Ohio. Good heavens, what a pumpkin lantern that would make! On the other hand, it would be bit of a mission to find someone to carve it!

To be more precise: drink the pumpkin-flavoured beer. Perfect for those who love sweeter stuff, but not so much for the health-conscious, because in addition to the pumpkin spice mix, this drink is also full of sugar. Of course, one glass every now and then doesn't mean tooth decay apocalypse!