It’s October, and that means that it’s time for that fall spirit we all love. Everyone loves October. And what’s not to love? There’s the fair, Halloween, manageable temperatures, etc. There is one thing, however, that has become overused in October. This is, of course, the pumpkin.
This radical overuse of the pumpkin in October cannot go unaddressed. I know we are all thinking it. It’s not that pumpkins are evil and we should get rid of them entirely. It’s just that they have become used to such an extent that they have begun to lose their charm.
One of the most common uses of the pumpkin is the classic jack-o’-lantern. I think that this is the one role the pumpkin plays in the October season that it should keep. It’s classic and just a lot of fun. Unfortunately, some people have moved away from this and begun a new process of just decorating pumpkins with paint or markers. Cutting a jack-o’-lantern is hard work, but it is rewarding. Painting a pumpkin is the lazier version of a jack-o’-lantern.
Pumpkins find their way into every aspect of our lives this time of year. There are pumpkin foods such as pumpkin pie and pumpkin seeds, and then there are foods that are flavored with pumpkins such as pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks and pumpkin milkshakes at Cook Out. Don’t forget about the pumpkin scents. There are pumpkin hand soaps and pumpkin-scented candles. There are lists and lists on the Internet about all the things that you can do with a pumpkin. The point is, pumpkins are all the rage in October, and I think I know why.
Because pumpkins are just so cheap and easy to obtain, they have become a thematic element of October, and we feel this compulsive need to indulge ourselves in the pumpkin fun. When it comes to holidays, many people have a feeling or an idea of what they want that holiday to be like. These ideas come from the media, movies and TV and are perpetuated in our lives by society — by the people we know personally who act on these ideas.
When Christmas comes along, you have to have a Christmas tree, stockings, maybe a few wreaths. When it is Easter, you feel the need to have an Easter egg hunt. When it is Valentine’s Day, you feel the need to have some kind of romantic encounter with someone you are interested in.
We’ve all watched these ideas unfold in movies and TV since we were kids, and that influences the way we act when these dates come. These romanticized ideas about how each holiday is supposed to go or how it is supposed to feel can, a lot of times, lead to disappointment because they don’t go the way we want them to. Despite lacking certain romantic elements, this is true for Halloween too.
We feel like using thematic elements of what we know Halloween to be, such as pumpkins, costumes and candy, will allow us to enjoy the holiday and feel the way we expect to feel. We all have romanticized ideas of these holidays, and the truth is they can be a real letdown if it doesn’t go our way. Not that these ideas are all bad — seeing that, a lot of time, the use of tradition can increase one’s enjoyment of holidays — it is just that we are obsessed with making sure we fill our lives with these themes because we are afraid that we will be disappointed. That’s why we feel the need to surround ourselves with pumpkins in every form possible throughout October.
So while these traditions can be fun, let’s not bury ourselves in predictable habits that will ultimately let us down, but instead try new things and make new traditions this holiday season.