Especially as a child trick-or-treating, then as a young parent helping my small son with his costume, then as an older adult giving candy to doorbell-ringing goblins and princesses, I have always enjoyed the celebration of Halloween.
In the late ‘50s, I remember my brother and I staying with our grandmother who lived twelve miles out of Lampasas. She was grandmother enough to cut eye holes in two sheets, throw them over our heads, and take us into town to trick-or-treat with two brown paper sacks.
I recognize that there are those of a more conservative bent that would argue participation in such an event is contrary to religious devotion. I am familiar with the origins of Halloween and beggars of the Dark Ages with lanterns carved from turnips. But that is not what it means for us today; it has evolved, if you will, as a secular American tradition (Wicca not withstanding).
It is more a celebration of fantasy and play, with a healthy sense of community cooperation (drive slowly, decorate your yard), which I believe is a healthy thing. Besides, it would be difficult to declare that the Bible has no interest in the supernatural.
What do you say to a kid who has just read Matthew 27: “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. And came out of the graves… and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”
Sometimes the Gospel is hinted at in the strangest of places. For many years, readers bought the Sunday paper for nothing more than Charles M. Shultz’ comic strip Peanuts. On October 26, 1959, the Great Pumpkin made its debut. Always unseen, and according to the ardent believer, Linus, the Great Pumpkin is a mysterious being who rises from the pumpkin patch on Halloween evening and brings toys to sincere and believing children.
Every year, Linus sits in a pumpkin patch that he believes to be the most sincere pumpkin patch, lacking in hypocrisy, and waits for the Great Pumpkin to appear. Always, the Great Pumpkin fails to be seen, but a clinging-to-faith Linus stubbornly promises to wait again for the Great Pumpkin the next Halloween.
In 1964, Robert L. Short published The Gospel According to Peanuts. He portrays and interprets one of Shultz’ Great Pumpkin comic strips. Linus and Charlie Brown are sitting at night in a pumpkin patch. Charlie asks why Linus thinks this is the right patch. Linus responds: “I doubt if the Great Pumpkin likes large pumpkin patches…They’re too commercial…He likes small homey ones…they’re more sincere.”
At last, a shadow appears in the pumpkin patch and Linus exclaims, “There he is! There he is! It’s the Great Pumpkin! He’s rising up out of the patch!” Then Linus faints. But the shadow is that of the dog, Snoopy. Linus recovers and asks, “Did he leave us any toys?”
“No toys,” says Charlie Brown, “just a used dog.”
It is the most unkind cut of all, and a classic advent experience in which “the expected one” appears, but is not actually the one expected. Snoopy, like Christ, now knows how it feels to appear in an obscure place, and only as a disappointing token for the one actually hoped for.
The best-known quote regarding Linus and the Great Pumpkin, from the original 1961 comic strip is: “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”
Have a safe and enjoyable Halloween; but also mind what and for Whom you truly hope.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.