Halloween & fall harvest time around the world

Nicholas Mayeda, 5, shops for pumpkins in South Pasadena.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Bertie Mae, a 27-year-old female Asian elephant, reaches for a pumpkin at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo.  (Nancy Chan / Associated Press)

Leonardo Urena, of Napa, celebrates after his pumpkin places second place in the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, Calif. Urena’s pumpkin weighed 1,404 pounds. The first-place pumpkin weighed 1,528 pounds.  (Paul Sakuma/ Associated Press)

Erin Collies helps Hunter Clark, 2, hoist his pumpkin from Kruse Farms’ pumpkin patch near Roseburg, Ore.  (Robin Loznak / Associated Press)

Jaxon Smith, 9, hefts a large pumpkin to take back to the school bus as third- and fourth-graders from Washington’s Asotin Elementary pick pumpkins near Anatone.  (Kyle Mills/ Associated Press)

Four-year-old Chloe Hopkins tries to strong-arm a floating pumpkin during an event at Bartley Ranch Regional Park in Reno, Nev.  (Kevin Clifford / Associated Press)

Jason Aleman, front, and, from left, Amare Taylor, Aurelio Delgado, Michael Ramos and Robert Cuba relax atop a cart full of pumpkins after harvesting at the Heptad Vegetable and Specialty Co. near Floydada, Texas.  (John A. Bowersmith / Associated Press)

Darien Huffman, 10, paints his Halloween monster head during a craft project in Arvada, Colo.  (Jack Dempsey / Associated Press)

Thomas and Samantha Pulver and 10-year-old Ashley check out the maze at Stickley Farm in Bristol, Tenn. The farm has used the presidential campaign as the theme for the maze this year with the corn stalks creating the outline of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.  (Earl Neikirk / Associated Press)

Grace Wacholz, of Staples, Minn., tries to get a firm bite of an apple on a string during the Great Pumpkin Festival in Brainerd, Minn.  (Steve Kohls / Associated Press)

Thousands of lighted jack-o’-lanterns are shown during Camp Sunshine’s Maine Pumpkin Festival in Cumberland, Maine.  (Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press)

Oswega, N.Y.’s Central New York Great Pumpkin Festival drew lightweights as well as heavyweights. Some of the pumpkins weighed more than 400 pounds.  (Gary Walts / Associated Press)

At New York’s Leaf & Bean of Park Slope, in Brooklyn, a Halloween window display with a sense of humor shows tombstones bearing the names of financial institutions. R.I.P.  (Mark Lennihan / Associated Press)

Farmworkers use a forklift to unload boxes of pumpkins grown at Will-O-Bett Farm in East Berwick, Penn.  (Jimmy May / Associated Press)

A display of orange and white pumpkins at Wilson Farm in Lexington, Mass. is in the design of a Boston Red Sox logo.  (Patrick Whittemore / Associated Press)

From left, Frank Cioffi, Tim Young and Tom Torti participate in the Giant Pumpkin Regatta on Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vt.  (Andy Duback / Associated Press)

In Williston , Vt., mask-free mom Ann Schmidt gets into the spooky spirit of the holiday on her front lawn with sons Douglas, 8, left, and James, 6.  (Toby Talbot / Associated Press)

Isabella Duncan, 13 months, enjoys her first trip to the pumpkin patch with her family at Woodland United Methodist Church in Rock Hill, S.C.  (Melissa Cherry / Associated Press)

Sage Henry, 2, picks a petite pumpkin while her family browses the gourds at the Grace Beachside Lutheran Church lot in Ormond Beach, Fla.  (Pam Lockeby / Associated Press)

Bob Wanderas installs a jack-o’-lantern atop the pitchfork in the 25-foot-tall “God Bless America” sculpture outside the Key West Museum of Art & History in Florida.  (Rob O’Neal / AFP/Getty Images)

During Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., orange fireworks explode over Cinderella’s Castle as part of the “Happy HalloWishes” fireworks show.  (Gene Duncan / Associated Press)

A woman arranges pumpkins to form the shape of a heart in the eastern German town of Moritzburg.  (Norbert Millauer / AFP/Getty Images)

An autumn treat for 6-year-old hippopotamus Kavango, prepared to munch at Germany’s Cologne Zoo.  (Roberto Pfeil / Associated Press)

All in black, Cookie the sea lion balances a plastic pumpkin at the Shinagawa Aquarium in Tokyo.  (Itsuo Inouye / Associated Press)

In Japan, a Welsh corgi is among participants in a dog costume contest at the annual Halloween festival in Kawasaki.  (Shizuo Kambayashi / Associated Press)