Dear Teachers,
I read this:
“Last year I attempted to start down that road by insisting that I actually engage in that most familiar of Halloween traditions by purchasing autumnal gourds, and then celebrating their harvest by hollowing them out, cutting an interesting design through their skin and then setting the insides alight.”
I wonder if “autumnal gourds” is a common alternative term for pumpkins? If without such context, can people understand what autumnal gourds refer to?
Hi apo
The sense I get is that the author is referring to a variety of gourds, but I’d expect pumpkins to be included.
A native speaker wouldn’t know specifically which gourds the writer is referring to either. To get an idea what the other gourds might look like, try a Google search for “autumnal gourds” or “fall gourds”. 
Amy
Hi apo,
Gourd is one of those rich sounding words so much more evocative than funny old pumpkin. I always think of it like that probably because of the poem by John Keats, Ode to Autumn:
Alan
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Do people in the UK carve only pumpkins, Alan?
.
Hi,
Gourd knows!
Alan
Dear Alan,
Yesterday night I found your essay which begins with first two lines of John Keats To Autumn poem and finishes the last two lines of this poem. I wanted to print it to read it again before sleeping but I lost your essay. I went back where I found it but it was an other title there.
This morning I tried again and I found this page. Please, send me where can I read again this essay.
Thanks again:
Kati Svaby
Hi Alan,
Many thanks for the quick answer.
Regards:
Kati Svaby