October 2009 
October 3, Saturday, Sukkoth (soo-coat) (10/3-10/9) : Jewish.
Sukkoth is a harvest holiday, celebrated for nine days. Observance of Sukkoth includes eating meals outdoors in booths made of wood and decorated with fruits and vegetables to signify the huts used by the Israelites during harvest times. Like most Jewish holidays, Sukkoth begins at sundown the day before.
FOOD AND DRINK
The harvest influences all the foods eaten at Sukkoth. tzimmes, the vegetable stew popular at Rosh Hashanah, may be served. Stuffed vegetables such as eggplant, peppers, and cabbage leaves are also popular choices, as are desserts made with apples or other seasonal fruits. Fruits are strung from the roof of the shelter as a festive decoration, and in America cornstalks are often used as decoration.
In Israel a type of citron (etrog), a fruit like a large thick-skinned lemon, is especially important during Sukkoth because in the ritual it symbolizes God's bounty. Citrons are known in this country only as the candied peel used in fruit cakes and cookies. The most important Sukkoth meals are those on the first and last evenings of the holiday and on the Sabbath that occurs during the holiday.
October 3, Saturday, Chusok (choo-sock) (Harvest Festival) : South Korea.
On this thanksgiving festival, Koreans pay respects to their ancestors.
FOOD AND DRINK
Chusok is celebrated with family feasts. Dishes include large bowls of noodles and rice accompanied by dishes of beans, vegetables, dumplings, and chicken and meat dishes. Among these, bulgogi is most important because it is the national celebratory dish of Korea and appears on every, festive occasion. Bulgogi is made from thin strips of tenderloin beef marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, ginger, garlic, scallions, and sesame seeds and cooked in a table-top griddle by the diners. Kimchi, a pungent pickle made from fermented cabbage and chilies, is always served with Korean meals. Mooncakes made of rice, chestnuts, and fruit are also eaten at Chusok.
October 3, Saturday, Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (Chung-ch'iu) : China.
This autumn festival gives thanks for the food being stored for winter. Evening outdoor celebrations include poetry recitals, wine drinking, and traditional games centered around finding a good husband. Friends and families visit and eat together, often outdoors.
FOOD AND DRINK
The Chinese place melons and other round, moon-like fruits outdoors as tributes to the moon and offer yellow beans to the "rabbit in the moon." The most typical treat, however, are mooncakes made from a wheat-flour dough, stamped with Chinese characters, and baked to a rich golden brown. In northern China, mooncakes have two fillings—a sugar paste or a date paste. In southern China, the fillings are more varied—they include ham, preserved apricots, sweet bean puree, walnuts, and watermelon seeds.
October 3, Saturday, Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (Tet Trung Thu) : Vietnam.
Like the Chinese Moon Festival, Tet Trung Thu celebrates the harvest. Lantern processions are typical with candies and mooncakes as treats.
October 12, Monday, Columbus Day observed : United States.
This holiday commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America. It is a national holiday when many businesses close.
FOOD AND DRINK
Italian communities in America, as well as many other Americans, celebrate by eating Italian foods such as pasta, tomato sauces, pizza, Italian breads, and Baked Ziti with Spinach and Gorgonzola.
COLORS
Green, white, and red (the colors of the Italian flag).
October 12, Monday, Thanksgiving Day : Canada.
The Canadian Thanksgiving occurs on the second Monday of October, just before the first snow falls. It is a national holiday, so businesses are closed while people enjoy a three-day weekend. Unlike Thanksgiving in the United States, Canada's holiday is not a historical commemoration; it is strictly a harvest festival. Canadians do, however, share the American passion for watching football on this day.
FOOD AND DRINK
Canadian Thanksgiving food is quite similar to that in the United States. Salty snacks such as nuts and chips with soft drinks and beer accompany the TV game or precede the meal, while turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce is the main course, followed by pumpkin or apple pie.
October 17, Saturday, Diwali (dee-wahl-ee) : Hindu.
This five-day celebration honors the Hindu gods and goddesses and also signals the beginning of winter. To prepare for it, people clean their houses and decorate them with flowers. They also arrange a small altar with offerings of flowers and sweets. They light small lamps called dipa beside roads and near doorways and windowsills so that Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, can find her way inside. Strings of lights are sometimes used to outline houses and buildings. For this reason, Diwali is sometimes called the Festival of Lights.
Other festivities include parades and outdoor entertainment such as firecrackers, snake charmers, and musicians. Friends and families entertain each other during Diwali.
FOOD AND DRINK
Diwali centers on the community rather than the family, so the emphasis is not on a large family meal, but on foods such as sweets and snacks that can be made in large quantities and offered to neighbors and visitors. People eat so many of these foods that they have little interest in meals as such.
In southern India two typical Diwali specialties are murkis and laddoos. Murkis are a savory snack made from a lentil flour dough forced through a sieve into hot oil, where it fries into a mass of strands. Sometimes sesame seeds are added for flavor. Laddoos are ball-shaped cookies made from a chickpea flour dough sweetened and flavored with cardamom and rose-essence. Gulab jamons are walnut-sized balls of a specially concentrated form of milk. They are fried and served in syrup. Other ingredients important in Indian sweets include butter, honey, cream, coconut, almonds and pistachios.
Five foods—honey, sugar, milk, yogurt, and the clarified butter called ghee—are collectively called panch armit. They appear in foods for all Hindu festivals, including weddings. (See recipe for Masoor Dal.)
COLORS
Orange is the most important Diwali color because it signifies wealth and good luck.
October 31, Saturday, Halloween : United Kingdom, United States.
Halloween, short for “All Hallows Eve,” is the day before All Saints (Hallows) Day. Traditionally ghosts and spirits walk on this night, doing mischief where they can. Small gifts disarm them, hence the custom of children dressing up as spirits and yelling “Trick or Treat.”
FOOD AND DRINK
Candies of every sort are essential for Halloween treats. Pumpkins for carving into jack-o’-lanterns to scare the ghosts away are also vital. Many people also serve pumpkin bread or cookies on this day. (See recipes for Pumpkin Peanut Soup and Butternut and Coconut Soup.)
Other foods sometimes used for Halloween gifts are apples and popcorn.
COLORS
Orange, associated with pumpkins, and black, associated with witches, are the typical colors of Halloween.