In this season of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Fall harvests the pumpkin plays a major role, both as a decoration, Jack-O-Lanterns and center pieces, as well as food with pumpkin pie being the most famous.

The name pumpkin is descended from the centuries old Greek word pepon which meant "large melon" and obviously did not refer to the pumpkin that we now know. The French then changed the pronunciation to pompon, but again the reference was to a melon or other gourd as the pumpkins that we know are native to the New World. As with many French words, pompon crossed the English Channel and became pumpion, again still referring to another pumpkin like vegetable. When the English came to the New World they were introduced to what we know as pumpkins by the Indians. Upon being introduced to the pumpkin these early English settlers modified the pronunciation, for a third time since its Greek origin, to the present pumpkin.

The pumpkin is native to the New World and was one of the foods grown by the Indians. Among the Iroquois of the northeastern U.S., the pumpkin was one of the group of crops known as the "three sisters" and was grown together with corn and beans. According to legend, a pregnant woman living in the sky world above the present world craved the bark of the root of the great tree that grew in the middle of the Sky World. Her husband, like all good husbands,acceded to her wish and scraped the dirt away from the base of the tree to expose the roots and creating a hole. After her husband had obtained the bark she desired, the woman leaned over and peered into the hole. However, she lost her balance and fell into and through the hole to the earth below, becoming the first human on earth. She eventually gave birth to a daughter who grew up and and became pregnant with twins by the West Wind. Just before the time came for their birth, the twins got into a fight about how they were to emerge from the womb. The left handed twin did not want to emerge in the usual way and, instead, forced himself out through his mother's left armpit, killing her in the process. The twins then buried their mother and from the spot where she was buried, there sprouted the corn, beans and pumpkins which became the main food staples of the Iroquois.

While the Iroquois men hunted, the women tended to the crops. Each spring the ground was prepared and the women carefully dug holes for the planting. Into each hole they placed a fish along with a corn, bean and pumpkin seed before covering the hole. The dead fish fertilized the ground for the seed, the corn stalk provided support for the bean plant to climb on, the pumpkin provided ground cover to keep the weeds out and the roots of the bean added nutrients to the soil. As spring moved into summer and summer to autumn, whole fields were filled with corn, beans and pumpkins growing together like the three sisters of legend to provide sustenance for the humanfamilies of the tribe.