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One of Schulz's only two known drawings of the Great Pumpkin; naturally, they were both in a Sunday title panel (October 30, 1977 here) and thus out of the strip's actual continuity.

Margaret Jo McCullin: So what are you going to do this Hallowe'en, Terry?
Terry Rialto: Well, I enjoy spending Hallowe'en night out in the pumpkin patch, waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear.
McCullin: Oh, like in Charlie Brown!
Rialto: Charlie what now?
McCullin: The cartoon. Charlie Brown's a cartoon.
Rialto: (offended) There's nothing cartoonish about my religious beliefs.

--"Delicious Dish," Saturday Night Live S26 E3 (October 21, 2000)

It's October, and what a fine time it is for a post celebrating Linus's quixotic but steadfast devotion to the supposed supernaturally squashy bringer of toys to good children in sincere pumpkin patches on All Hallows Eve. (Note: this isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of every "Great Pumpkin"-related strip ever; that'd make this post extremely long and, frankly, monotonous. Feel free to comment with "Aw, you left out the one where ____", especially if you share a link, hehe.)

Much has been written analyzing the Great Pumpkin as a metaphor of true faith and/or false faith, as a parody of Christian evangelism, as a symbol of those mocked or rejected for their minority opinion, among other things. However, Charles Schulz himself insisted that in creating the G.P. he had nothing more in mind than the humour in one of his characters confusing Hallowe'en with Christmas. As we see in the very first mention of the G.P., from the October 26, 1959 Peanuts strip:

Similarly, in the two strips immediately following, Linus rhapsodizes about everyone at this time of year being full of "joy and good will," and suggests to Lucy that they gather their friends together and sing pumpkin carols.

But it was not to be, for as Hallowe'en night drew to a close Linus suffered the first no-show from his god, and the first mockery for his faith (led by an unusually mean-spirited Charlie Brown; November 3, 1959).

Nevertheless, Linus soldiered on the next October, despite Lucy trying to set him straight as to the origin of his belief (October 25, 1960):

This next one, besides featuring a more supportive if just as skeptical Charlie Brown, introduces Linus's main prerequisite for the G.P. to appear. It also features the first "false positive" sighting (October 30, 1960).

Now this strip is most unusual, because it's the one and only time the Great Pumpkin's existence gets actual confirmation outside of Linus's mind (November 1, 1961).

Unsurprisingly, Schulz never did that sort of thing again with the squashy one. It rather undercuts the "guaranteed failure" thing Peanuts had going on. As he wrote in 1985, "All the loves in the strip are unrequited; all the baseball games are lost; all the test scores are D-minuses; The Great Pumpkin never comes; and the football is always pulled away."

Instead, although Linus would get his first sincere (but furiously temporary) disciple in Sally in 1963 (as later adapted in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!), by the following year he was once again the sole witness to his faith, paying dearly for it at the polls but accepting his fate (October 21 and 26, 1964).

Mentioning Jesus, though? That'll win you the red states at the least. Know your audience!

On the other hand, two years later, Linus would write to Charlie Brown that, after giving a Bible lesson at summer camp, he spoke about the G.P. as well and they elected him camp president. Go figure. Even so, back home Linus faced another sort of challenge: how honest to be with new devotee Peppermint Patty (October 28-29, 1966).

We never get to see how Linus answered her. Though I should note that back in 1962, when Lucy tried the same thing her brother didn't hesitate to call her fake patch hypocritical. (Maybe he overheard when, in that same strip, she'd told Charlie Brown she was hoping a G.P. appearance would bring her fame and fortune.)

I don't have anything thematic to say about these next ones. I just find them hilarious (October 27 and 31, 1970; October 31 and November 1, 1977).

The following is my second-favourite Great Pumpkin strip, the first being the "oranges" one. I remember clipping this when it first ran (November 1, 1991) and showing it to a local rabbi. She loved it.

And finally, out of chronological sequence this time (November 1, 1970), a strip which more than any other epitomizes Linus's devotion to the Great Grape -- sorry, Pumpkin -- in the absence of any vindication whatsoever. For better or worse, he is... a true believer.