| “ | There's three things I've learned never to discuss with people: politics, religion, and the Great Pumpkin. | ” |
— Linus, after once again being told he's believing in a figment of his imagination | ||
Linus van Pelt is a regular character from the Peanuts comic strip and cartoon series. He is the middle child in the van Pelt family, between his older sister Lucy and his younger brother Rerun, and he is also Charlie Brown's best friend and Sally's love interest. Though young and always carrying his blue blanket, Linus is unusually smart, and he acts as the strip's philosopher and theologian, often quoting the Gospels.
An annual running joke in the strip is that Linus is a believer in the Great Pumpkin, an unseen, presumably imaginary (but maybe not so imaginary)[note 1] Santa Claus-like being who flies around the most sincere pumpkin patch and delivers toys to all the good little children on Halloween night. In fact, he writes a letter to the Great Pumpkin every year, and he plans a vigil every Halloween to miss out on trick-or-treating and parties to sit in what he deems the most sincere pumpkin patch to wait for the Great Pumpkin all night.
Appearances in Halloween specials[]
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- ↑ In the Peanuts strip published on October 29, 1961, Linus mentioned that the Great Pumpkin had actually appeared at two other sincere pumpkin patches the previous two years. This was followed up in the November 1st strip, where Charlie Brown informs him that he heard on the radio that the Great Pumpkin had appeared in a very sincere pumpkin patch in New Jersey. This would imply, if not outright confirm, that the Great Pumpkin actually exists within Peanuts.