Back in October of 1966, a family Halloween tradition was born that has carried on for forty-three years. In fact, there are some people who claim they can’t get into the Halloween mood without it. That tradition: The Great Pumpkin. Charles M. Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comics wrote “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” about a young boy, Linus Van Pelt, whose believe in the spirit of Halloween manifests in the form of the Great Pumpkin. A legendary, magical being not unlike Santa Claus, everyone tells Linus he is crazy, there’s no such thing as the Great Pumpkin, and he’s in for a big, fat disappointment.

Linus sits down and writes a letter to the Great Pumpkin, expressing his belief, and on Halloween night each year, he sits and waits in the local pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to appear.

While the rest of the Peanuts’ Gang are off trick-or-treating and enjoying Halloween parties, Linus waits, refusing to budge for even a minute, so he doesn’t miss the Great Pumpkin, but each year ends in disappointment.

A classic moment of the show is during the trick-or-treating scene, after the kids are rooting through their bags of loot and Charlie Brown exclaims, “I got a rock!” Typical, that such bad luck and misfortune should strike the king of “Good grief!” It wouldn’t be Peanuts without it.

After the ABC network bought the rights to air the special in 2001, two cuts to the original cartoon were made so the network could squeeze in a few more commercials. One major scene cut featured Snoopy in WWI flying gear prompting Schroeder to compose songs about the war, while the other scene of Lucy pulling a football out from under Charlie Brown before he could kick it actually became something of a tradition in future Peanuts specials over the years.

One of the best things about The Great Pumpkin is that even though Linus winds up disappointed, and everyone relentlessly teases him, the boy never stops believing. This daring impulse and dedication to one’s dreams might be mocked by others who are afraid to reach into the great beyond for an inkling of hope, but Linus van Pelt’s determination to believe is one of the things that always inspired me about this show. No matter what type of hardships we face in life, it is our willingness to believe that inspires others, and keeps us going in spite of it all.

While you can buy “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!“ on DVD, there’s something about sitting down to watch it on television with a lap full of Halloween candy that screams tradition. It’s an annual must watch in my household, and has been for over thirty years. Despite my own child’s tendency to stick her nose up at what she considers outdated political humor, she can’t turn away from The Great Pumpkin either, which, as far as I’m concerned, lends just a little more credence to his myth.