Great Pumpkin

Facts from the original

• The Great Pumpkin is an unseen character in the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz.
• According to Linus van Pelt, the Great Pumpkin is a legendary personality who rises from a pumpkin patch on Halloween carrying a large bag of toys to deliver to believing children.
• Linus continues to maintain faith in the Great Pumpkin despite his friends' mockery and disbelief.
• The Great Pumpkin was first introduced in the strip dated October 26, 1959.
• Schulz reworked the premise many times throughout the run of Peanuts.
• The premise notably inspired the 1966 animated television special It'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 is not part of the story.
• Schulz usually avoided outright politics but enjoyed his Great Pumpkin strips and incorporating religious references in many comics and animated cartoons.
• Each year Linus awaits 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 similarities between the Great Pumpkin and Santa 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 that there are three things he has learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.
• This quote would later be said by Linus in the TV special.
• A few days later, Linus claims previously reported official sightings of the Great Pumpkin in Connecticut and Texas.
• Charlie Brown hears of a sighting in New Jersey.
• Linus remains faithful to the Great Pumpkin, even devising a Great Pumpkin Newsletter in comic strips dated October 1998.
• 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 A Charlie Brown Religion, Schulz's views were very personal and often misinterpreted.
• 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 Christian evangelism 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.
• 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, as a metaphor for mankind's basic existential dilemmas.
• Schulz himself 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, Schulz has Linus suggest that he and the other children go singing pumpkin carols, something he also asks the trick-or-treating kids in the special itself.
• After the Great Pumpkin formed the central premise of the 1966 television special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, later television specials also referenced the character.
• You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown (1972) referenced the character when Linus almost blows his chances in a school election.
• It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (1974) referenced the character in which Sally cites her previous experience with the non-appearance of the Great Pumpkin.
• You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (1975) referenced the character, 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 the Little Red-Haired Girl) might be willing to believe in the Great Pumpkin.
• The song Snoopy vs. the Red Baron has lyrics about Snoopy asking the Great Pumpkin for a new battle plan.
• In October 2010, forty-four years after the initial airing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, the Great Pumpkin was the topic of a licensed use by the online game Poptropica.
• Poptropica's 15th island is Great Pumpkin Island, and features several of the Peanuts characters interacting with players.
• 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.
• See also entries include Stingy Jack, Jack Skellington, It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse (Treehouse of Horror XIX), and David S. Pumpkins.