According to an article in The Times of 28 October 2023, the Russian Orthodox Church worried about ‘the moral decay of trick-or-treating, making lanterns and dressing up as zombies’, has instituted the Pumpkin Feast of the Saviour, as an alternative at the end of October:  ‘The feast is being presented as either (falsely) an overlooked holiday that long existed, or a freshly minted one that can be enjoyed without worrying about succumbing to the occult.’  So far the Feast is said to have had ‘only limited take-up’.

Image: stall selling pumpkins, Newark Royal Market, Nottinghamshire, October 2023.