Miller Lawn was flooded with pumpkins last Thursday morning. The College has an annual tradition of installing a miniature pumpkin patch mid-October. This year, Dining Services hosted the event, furnishing the quad with orange pumpkins weighing between ten and 20 pounds and smaller white “ghost” pumpkins. Soon, carved jack-o’-lanterns flanked the walkways in front of the Mary Low and Foss residences.
The pumpkin patch was followed by Fall Fest on Saturday. The Student Programming Board hosted the yearly event, which was moved indoors due to “forecasted high winds and low [temperatures].” The celebration consisted of a free beer garden in the Bobby Silberman Lounge, a bull-riding machine in Cotter Union, a food truck selling pretzels and bratwurst, and a free photo booth. The beer garden was accompanied by a performance from the student band Free Candy, and beer and hard cider were available for students of drinking age. Pumpkins were also available for carving. These were a smaller variant than those in the pumpkin patch.
Seasonal changes are often associated with physical objects that symbolize transformations within the culture we belong to. For many, the arrival of winter is closely associated with hot chocolate, Christmas lights, and snow. Such affiliations may stem from the Protestant influences that shaped American culture, specifically the celebration of Christmas. Similarly, we celebrate autumn by interacting with objects that signify the season, as conditioned by our culture; these include pumpkins, apples, fairgrounds, and cinnamon-flavored pastries.
What are the cultural conditions that shape our association of autumn with pumpkins? The celebration of Halloween is one possibility, as the holiday is celebrated by carving hollowed-out pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns. Halloween can be traced back to two closely related origins, one from the Celtic celebration of Samhain and the other from the Catholic celebration of All Saints’ Day. Samhain, or Sauin, begins on the evening of Oct. 31 and lasts until sunset on Nov. 1. The celebration marks the end of the harvest season and the commencement of the “winter half” of the year. The day is deeply embedded in Irish mythology; according to Tochmach Emire — a written work on Irish mythology by Christian monks in the Middle Ages — Samhain is the first of the four seasonal festivals during the year, during which a “great gathering” of meetings, drinking, feasts, and contests take place. From the Catholic tradition, Halloween is the day before the celebration of All Saints’ Day. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III changed the date of the celebration to Nov. 1, and in the 9th century, Pope Gregory IV made the date a church-wide celebration. Though scholarship is mixed on the relation between the two origins, it is widely believed that the church made this decision as a reaction to the pervasive Celtic mythology.
Pumpkins became part of the holiday through the legend of “Stingy Jack,” an Irish folktale about a local drunkard. After making deals with Satan to avoid his death, Jack lives a life of deceit and drinking until he dies and begs both God and Satan for admission into the afterlife. God denies his request due to Jack’s sinful lifestyle and a former agreement, where Satan promised not to send Jack’s soul to Hell. Instead, Satan gave Jack a piece of ember — a glowing fragment of coal or wood from fire. According to the story, Jack is not allowed in either afterlife, and only has an ember in a hollowed-out “turnip” to light his way.
~ Benjamin Ha `27
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