Ok…… so am I the only person who doesn’t know about this fictional character (i.e.. the great pumpkin)? Well this is how it started for me.
I over heard one of my students talking about the present that The Great Pumpkin brought to him over our break. At first I didn’t think much of it. But then over the next few moments I started wondering…. was this character like a Santa Claus for Halloween? I had never heard of it before so to make sure I was on the right track I asked….
“Owen… did the great pumpkin give you a present on the night of Halloween?”
“Yeah… I got a ( I don’t remember what he said) from the great pumpkin. He came while we were sleeping.”
At this point I couldn’t believe it. Don’t get me wrong… I’ve always embraced and had fun with Santa but now I sort of felt like Mr. Claus had an imposter! 🙂 I guess at that point I asked myself: “Is there a way to over do this gift giving character role?” In all honestly I wasn’t surprised that this student’s mother encouraged it. I could tell she was one of those super moms that interacted 100 % with her kids and loved to celebrate the holidays with them. I think I was more shocked to realize that I had never even heard of it before.
Well… then about 3 or 4 days ago all this came back to me. I was thinking about it and thought I would ask Jas if he had ever heard of The Great Pumpkin. Wait……. Can you guess the answer he gave?
“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of it.”
“Really?!!!!!”
“Yeah it was Christianity’s first attempt to try and create an alternative to a dark and pagan holiday.”
HOW DOES HE KNOW ALL THIS STUFF? I GUESS I SHOULD ALWAYS GO TO MY WALKING DICTIONARY/HISTORIAN WHENEVER I’M NOT SURE ABOUT SOMETHING. HEE HEE
So that is why I asked you. I just wanted to see if perhaps it was just MY family that never took an interest in this character. There is one thing for sure though….. I don’t think our kids will really know who the great pumpkin is either, til they maybe are grown and gone. Then perhaps they will have to ask a smart spouse to find out…….
“Just Who In World Is THE GREAT PUMPKIN Anyway?
P.s.
Apparently… I didn’t watched enough Charlie Brown as a child 🙂
I don’t know that it had anything whatsoever to do with trying to “co-opt” or create an alternative to Halloween… At least I never interpreted it that way. Linus was so faithful though, and the pumpkin never showed up. It was kinda sad.
I watched both Charlie Brown Christmas Specials this last Christmas, and appreciated that the actual Christmas story was read, in part, in both of them.
Then I went on to watch some other Christmas Specials, and even in the HeMan – Masters of the Universe Christmas Special, they tell about the real Christmas story. It really is a new world today.
It was created by Peanuts. Linus would wait every year for the Great Pumpkin, even tho it never appeared. The next year his faith was just as strong that this would be the year. I don’t think it had to do with an alternative to Halloween but it made for a continuing story line for the character.
I have been toting that piece of knowledge for years now, IT MUST BE TRUE. (I either read it in that peanuts book, or I made it up and have convinced myself it is true)
so… lesson’s to be learned:
1. Never doubt anything i say, it is the gospel truth… unless it’s not.
2. Don’t tell my wife I’m wrong… She’ll start thinking I’m wrong ALL the time. ooh Pandora’s Box…
((On a complete side note, I need to know something. Do we have any Obama kool-aid drinkers? Or are all our readers conservative Judea-Christians?))
I am far from an “Obama kool-aid drinker” although I do wish him the best and pray for him if only because him doing well means the country is doing well… or something like that. In any case, I find the idea that you can either be on the Obama train, or be a conservative Judeo-Christian – one and not the other – well that is crazy. I can’t write or think, just got home and the kids are crazy. =)