pumpkins?

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Pumpkins are not big in the Philippines (and in Africa the Pumpkins were what the US would call green squash).

But hey, thanks to globalization, one can get Pumpkin spice Latte at the local Duncan Donuts!

the CSMonitor has an article on the pumpkin spice fad in the USA.

and food blogger  Stephanie Ong has the recipe for both pumpkin spice and how to make pumpkin spice latte.

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but here, except for a few people, the big weekend holiday is Undas, to pray for the dead on Nov 1.

(in Catholic calender, it is All Saint's day on Nov1 and all Souls day on Nov 2) and visit the graves in the cemetaries to clean them up, place candles and flowers on the grave, and have a small picnic while you do that. Also to attend mass (although I might skip this: if it is too crowded and hot in church I tend to faint or get sick).

if you forget food, usually there are vendors who can sell you water/softdrinks and various snacks (and small toys or baloons to keep the kids from being bored). Usually the cemetaries are so crowded that you have to part outside and hike in to the grave.... Lolo couldn't walk that far, so the cops usually let us get inside using a tricycle (not car)....(elders are respected here in the rural Philippines).

Lolo's grave is not quite finished: After the second payment, they stopped working on it, and I refuse to pay them the final payment until the ceiling and floor is done. I had to get one of our staff to paint the metal pipes holding up the roof, because it was rusting and looked terrible, and I planted some bushes to make the front look a bit better. One of these days I'll post a photo.