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Pumpkin Festival Days
"When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!"
~ James Whitcomb Riley, When the Frost is On the Punkin, 1849 - 1916
October ushers in the first frosts and fiery sunsets, painting the world in glowing shades of red, orange, and gold. Pumpkin patches come alive under these skies—bright oranges against clear blue skies, cheerful, and ready for the Hallowe'en season. In many parts of North America and elsewhere, this is the season of harvest and pumpkin festivals, where communities gather to carve, weigh, and even toss these iconic squashes, smashing records and pumpkins alike!
Pumpkins, native to the New World, have long found their place in autumn folklore and eventually in literature, too. The word pumpkin first appeared in the 17th century reworking of the fairy tale Cinderella, when a humble gourd becomes a glittering carriage at the touch of a fairy godmother’s wand. Earlier versions of Cinderella—like Giambattista Basile’s Italian La Gatta Cenerentola (1634) and the even older Chinese tale Ye Xian (9th century) highlighted the heroine’s transformation through magical animals, fairy helpers, or enchanted trees, not vegetables. It was Charles Perrault’s 1697 French version that first introduced the pumpkin carriage, marking the recent import of these "exotic squashes" from the Americas to Europe.
Artists of the same period shared Perrault’s fascination. In the 17th century, European still-life painters began including pumpkins in their lavish table scenes—symbols of abundance, curiosity, and the faraway lands from which they came.
Through the years, pumpkins have also figured in countless stories—from the mid-century modern Peanuts’ “The Great Pumpkin,” to the shattered gourd hurled by the Headless Horseman in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. There’s also Jack Pumpkinhead in L. Frank Baum’s The Marvelous Land of Oz, and Feathertop, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s enchanted scarecrow with a pumpkin for a head.
And of course, pumpkins became the New World’s lantern of choice, replacing Old World turnips and parsnips as the vegetable of choice to be hollowed and carved into lanterns used to scare away wandering spirits!
And in recent news, the champion pumpkin at the Half Moon Bay in California Pumpkin Festival weighed in at an astounding 2,346 pounds! And this same month, the current world-record pumpkin was grown by a pair of twin brothers from the United Kingdom. That pumpkin weighed in at 2,819 pounds - as much as a full grown rhinoceros!!
Good gourd, indeed! 💙 🧡 🖤 💛 🤍 🎃 🎃 🎃
This fiery tartan by Carol A.L. Martin with its contrasting cool deep blue hues, evokes the brilliant colours of an autumn sunset, particularly when the low-angled light of fall results in such brilliant intensities.
A time-honored Hallowe'en seasonal tradition in many households in the 20th century was to watch the annual televised special, "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," which debuted in October, 1966.
With an original and memorable score composed and performed by Vince Guaraldi, executive producer Lee Mendelson told The Washington Post that the sequence with Snoopy flying his doghouse was "one of the most memorable animated scenes ever." He also said that of all the Peanuts TV specials, "I believe It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is Bill Melendez’s animation masterpiece."
Modern traditions include a visit to your local pumpkin patch or pumpkin festival, which abound in the United States, in order to pick up a pumpkin or two for carving and seasonal decorating for Hallowe'en. Often with adjoining corn mazes and lots of fun activities and pumpkin-flavoured treats and beverages, festivals can also include pumpkin carving, pumpkin weighing, or pumpkin throwing contests!
The coastal community of Half Moon Bay in California, the Pumpkin Capital of the World, hosts its annual festival, begun in 1970, during this time.
According to their website, visitors can expect:
Massive, mind-boggling, Volkswagen-sized weigh-off champion pumpkins on display, the mesmerizing and remarkably talented “Picasso of pumpkin carvers” sculpting and shaping monster pumpkins into one-of-a-kind masterpieces, boo-tiful harvest-inspired crafts by America’s top artists, the Sunday-only “Made on the Coast” Locals’ Artists Block featuring fine art and live music, fabulously festive food and drink, the richest/creamiest/tastiest pumpkin pie on the planet, four stages of blockbuster entertainment, everyone’s favorite home-spun parade, the world’s largest mosaic pumpkin sculpture that measures 12-feet long, 11-feet high and weighs 10,000 pounds by artist Peter Hazel, enchanting events and contests for the whole family, playful and mischievous Pumpkin Festival mascot “Gourdy”, the never-ending search for the Great Pumpkin, and a bumper crop of 3,000+ tons of the beloved orange orb waiting to be picked from one of the many rustic pumpkin patches around town are among the extraordinary, not-to-be forgotten attractions!"
Bring back memories of childhood with the classic soundtrack of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" by clicking on "Sunset in the Pumpkin Patch" by photographer Lynn Bauer.