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TheGreat Pumpkin is anunseen character in thecomic stripPeanuts byCharles M. Schulz.[1] According toLinus van Pelt, the Great Pumpkin is a legendary personality who rises from thepumpkin patch onHalloween carrying a largebag of toys to deliver to believing children. Linus continues to maintain faith in the Great Pumpkin, despite his friends' mockery and disbelief.[2]
The Great Pumpkin was first introduced in the strip dated October 26, 1959,[3] and Schulz subsequently reworked the premise many times throughout the run ofPeanuts, notably inspiring the 1966 animated television specialIt's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The strips of October 30, 1977 and October 26, 1986 both include a thematical illustration of the Great Pumpkin in the title panel, which isn't part of the story of the strip.[4][5]
While Schulz usually avoided outright politics, he enjoyed his Great Pumpkin strips and incorporating religious references in many comics and animated cartoons.[6]
Each year Linus awaits the arrival of the Great Pumpkin in a pumpkin patch deemed most sincere and lacking in hypocrisy. The following morning, each year, an embarrassed yet undefeated Linus vows to wait for the Great Pumpkin again next Halloween. Linus acknowledges the similarities between the Great Pumpkin andSanta Claus (in the television special, Linus writes to the Great Pumpkin that Santa Claus has better publicity). Charlie Brown attributes Linus's belief in the Great Pumpkin to "denominational differences."
In the comic strip dated October 25, 1961, Linus explains: "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin."[7] A few days later, Linus claims previously reported official sightings of the Great Pumpkin in Connecticut and Texas,[8] and Charlie Brown hears of a sighting in New Jersey.[9]
Linus remains faithful to the Great Pumpkin, even devising a Great Pumpkin Newsletter in comic strips dated October 1998.[10]
The Great Pumpkin has been cited as a symbol of strong faith and foolish faith, leading to vastly different interpretations of creator Charles Schulz's own faith. As described in the book on Schulz's religious views,A Charlie Brown Religion, Schulz's views were very personal and often misinterpreted.[6] Linus' seemingly unshakable belief in the Great Pumpkin, and his desire to foster the same belief in others, has been interpreted as a parody of Christianevangelism by some observers. Others have seen Linus' belief in the Great Pumpkin as symbolic of the struggles faced by anyone with beliefs or practices that are not shared by the majority.[11] Still others view Linus' lonely vigils, in the service of a being that may or may not exist and which never makes its presence known in any case, as a metaphor for mankind's basicexistential dilemmas.[12]
Schulz himself, however, claimed no motivation beyond the humor of having one of his young characters confuse Halloween with Christmas. In the 1959 sequence of strips in which the Great Pumpkin is first mentioned, for instance, Schulz also has Linus suggest that he and the other kids "go out and sing pumpkincarols",[13] something which he also asks the trick-or-treating kids in the special itself.
After the Great Pumpkin formed thecentral premise of the 1966 television special, later television specials would also reference the character. These includedYou're Not Elected, Charlie Brown (1972) when Linus almost blows his chances in a school election;It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (1974) in which Sally cites her previous experience with the non-appearance of the Great Pumpkin; andYou're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (1975), wherein Linus enters the pumpkin patch with Charlie Brown, who gets teased as being the Great Pumpkin.The Peanuts Movie (2015) also namedrops the character, when Linus says he hopes the new kid in town (later revealed as theLittle Red-Haired Girl) might be willing to believe in the Great Pumpkin.
In October 2010, forty-four years after the initial airing ofIt's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, the Great Pumpkin was the topic of a licensed use by the online gamePoptropica. The site's 15th island is Great Pumpkin Island, and features several of thePeanuts characters interacting with players.[14] As the island follows the same plot as the original TV special, the Great Pumpkin does not appear, and turns out to be Snoopy with a pumpkin on his head.
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