The pumpkin weighing 1.07 tons was declared the heaviest in the history of the annual nationwide competition, which was held near San Francisco, California.
A cash prize of about $ 16.5 thousand was awarded to a farmer from Washington state, Joel Holland, for whom this victory in the 44th competition was already the seventh, reports the AP news agency .
The giant fruit had to be placed on the scales using a forklift. Hundreds of spectators watched the weighing procedure. Holland’s record-heavy gourd was weighed last. Before that, everyone was confident in the victory of last year’s leader, a school teacher in Washington State, Cindy Tobek.
Then she raised a fetus weighing 866.4 kg, and her prize was $ 11.5 thousand — $ 6 for each pound of weight (0.453 kg). This year, the organizers of the event decided to increase the remuneration to $ 7 per pound.
This time Tobek brought with her a pumpkin weighing 908 kg, but following the results of the competition, which took place for three hours, she took second place. More than 20 farmers from Oregon, Washington and California took part in the competition. The «lightest» pumpkin in the competition this year weighed a little over 100 kg.
The pumpkin is an integral symbol in the United States not only of Halloween, which is celebrated on October 31, on the eve of All Saints’ Day, but throughout October, and it is believed that this holiday was brought by immigrants from Ireland. It is based on the pagan belief that on this night the souls of the dead return to their homes to collect «tribute» in the form of food.
