... many people decorate the orange gourds

[v0031]

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The passage is talking about pumpkins, but why is "gourds" mentioned?

An American teacher from Minnesota has set a record for growing the world's heaviest pumpkin, which weighed 1,247 kilograms.
Travis Gienger was named the winner Monday of the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California.
The 43-year-old won the same contest in 2022. His winning pumpkin last year weighed 1,161 kilograms. Still, Gienger told The Associated Press he was surprised to win the world record. "I was not expecting that," he said. "It was quite the feeling."
Gienger is a teacher at Anoka Technical College in Anoka, Minnesota. He teaches agriculture and growing methods and has been producing pumpkins for nearly 30 years. Gienger says his father also raised pumpkins and this got him interested.
The past world record for the heaviest pumpkin was set by a grower in Italy who produced a 1,226-kilogram gourd in 2021, the Guinness World Records organization reports.
Gienger – who grows the pumpkins on his home property – said this year he decided to give his plants extra care. This included watering them up to 12 times a day and feeding them food, or fertilizer, a little more than usual.
Gienger first competed in Half Moon Bay's yearly contest in 2020. He has won three of the city's last four pumpkin contests. "I put in the work so that I can put a smile on people's faces and it's just so nice coming out here to see everyone in this town," Gienger said.
The pumpkin champion won a $30,000 prize for growing the biggest pumpkin and setting a world record.
Gienger's pumpkin will be shown along with the runner-up winners at the city's upcoming Art and Pumpkin Festival. At the event, visitors will be able to look at the pumpkin prizes and take pictures with the growers.
In the United States, pumpkins are popular throughout the autumn.
During the U.S. holiday Halloween – on October 31 – many people decorate the orange gourds and turn them into "jack-o'-lanterns." A jack-o'-lantern is a pumpkin that has been carved, usually to show a frightening or funny face.
Pumpkins are also a seasonal favorite for Americans to make pumpkin pie. This dessert food is traditionally eaten on Thanksgiving Day.

 

[Tarheel]

A pumpkin is a gourd. (Not all gourds are pumpkins, but all pumpkins are gourds.)

 

[Skrej]

See the Wikipedia entry which lists several types of gourds, including pumpkins. To further confuse the issue, pumpkins are also considered a squash.

It's one of those cases where scientific nomenclature differs from lay usage, which varies from person to person.

To me, the defining characteristic of a gourd is that hard outer shell when fully mature and dried. Squash have relatively soft skin, and will eventually rot if not consumed. I wouldn't personally think of a pumpkin as a gourd, because while the skin is pretty thick, it's still rather soft, and it will eventually rot. You can't preserve them to save their outer shell, although you can store them for several months before they go completely bad. You'll also hear the term 'hard squash' aka 'winter squash' for things like pumpkins, acorn squash, and butternut squash.

Gourds generally don't rot. They eventually dry out and perhaps become brittle, but they retain that hard outer shell and never completely decompose.

Scientifically speaking, pumpkins are also fruits, although most people would consider them a vegetable. Again, lay usage differs from biological classification.

I have childhood memories of hitting these baseball-sized gourds (considered a noxious weed in my region) for impromptu batting practice. Which of course only served to spread them about even more, but it sure was convenient not to have to retrieve your baseballs . Downside was they were incredibly smelly, hence one of the common names of 'stinking gourd'.

 

[emsr2d2]

@v0031 You need to provide the source of the text in post #1. Clearly you didn't write it yourself. If you had, you wouldn't need to ask why a particular word was used. You must tell us the source and author of all text you quote here.