Do you believe in the Great Pumpkin?
It probably comes as no surprise that I do.
Let me take you back too my Pumpkinseed days for a moment. My Aunt Trish, my mother’s younger sister whom I loved and idolized from the cradle, was the person who got me into Halloween. It was her favorite holiday, but she didn’t have children of her own to take trick-or-treating, so when I was old enough, she couldn’t wait to take me. It was our tradition from the time I was four until I turned eighteen, and even after that, we still went out for Halloween walks for several years. We’ll get into more of that another time, but for now I’d like to talk about another Halloween tradition that she started for me:
Belief in the Great Pumpkin!
I can’t remember exactly what age I was, five or six, I believe, when Aunt Trish and I were having a conversation on the phone shortly before Halloween. Being a little girl, I somehow got onto the subject of a new Barbie doll I really wanted, and Aunt Trish said something along the lines of “Well, maybe the Great Pumpkin will bring it for you!” I was dumbfounded but, of course, intrigued. Presents, and some sort of magical entity related to my favorite holiday?! Who could ask for more, right?
She went on to tell me about a Santa Claus/Easter Bunny like character who would bring small toys and candy to children on the night before Halloween. I don’t remember who she explained the fact that I’d never heard of him before and that none of my classmates talked about him, but I suppose I just assumed some people didn’t believe, just like with Santa or the Easter Bunny, and I already knew I was different for being more into Halloween than Christmas. Maybe the Great Pumpkin only visited those whose favorite holiday was Halloween, making us a very lucky few. I think what finally sold me for sure was when she told me there was movie about the Great Pumpkin, which she took me to rent that evening, my very first viewing of It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. My pumpkinseed brain didn’t quite catch onto the fact that the entire story was pretty much based around the fact that this character didn’t exist, but I’ve always had quite an imagination.
Sure enough, she came back on the night before Halloween, which is also my mother’s birthday, and put on quite a show, pretending to hear something outside, and running back inside with a beautifully decorated bag that had the Barbie I’d mentioned, along with some candy, and probably some Halloween confetti knowing my aunt, inside. This tradition went on for several years, until one year, I can’t remember when exactly, I caught her slipping my mother something to put out for me in the morning as a “Great Pumpkin” gift. In hindsight, I think that discovery hurt worse than finding out that Santa Claus was a myth.
But even now, all these years later, I still believe that the Great Pumpkin is something that exists in spirit, but only to those of us who truly believe in the magic of Halloween.
My perception of what the character looks like has changed a few times over the years. As a child, I believed that the Great Pumpkin looked like one of those vintage decorations of a ghost with the head of a pumpkin.
My father even once confirmed this theory when he told me he’d been up the night before and actually seen the Great Pumpkin, and had to correct him because he almost left me a GI Joe action figure instead of a doll. Strange thing was, I had heard some noise coming from the living room that night. It was likely the cats messing around, but my father claimed the Great Pumpkin had a very distinct rattling noise in his head when he moved it. To this day, I cant see decorations like the one pictured above (not my picture, by the way, but the closest thing I could find to my memory of what I’d based my childhood image of the Great Pumpkin off of) without feeling an instant wave of nostalgia for that time period in my life when I believed this being was visiting me once a year.
Many years later, in 2013, I think, I discovered a pumpkin ghoul in Walgreens that really, really caught my eye. I am an avid collector of pumpkin ghouls; they’re really my favorite type of decoration, and I’ve realized while writing this that that is most likely a direct result of my childhood image of the Great Pumpkin, but this one struck me as different. Special, somehow. Of course, I purchased him, and once he was on display, I realized that he was, in fact, the Great Pumpkin.
I can’t explain exactly why, but I know that’s who he is, whenever I look at him, at least for me. And I really do enjoy seeing how everyone within the Halloween community interprets the character as well. I have a friend who sees the Great Pumpkin in a huge pumpkin pillow that she bought several years ago. I’ve seen him interpreted as cute, I’ve seen him interpreted as sinister. I’ve seen him with a body and without, as a ghoul or a scarecrow, and I don’t think any of these interpretations are incorrect. The Great Pumpkin is whoever we want him to be, as long as we keep believing in the true spirit of Halloween.
Stay spooky, my friends.
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