Thrawnkin

"There is a mystery about this which stimulates the imagination;

where there is no imagination there is no horror."

Although I suspended, just this week, my Sherlock and Thrawn series, with the urge to post my "Thrawnkin", I couldn't let go the matter completely, dropping here a fascinating quote from "A Study in Scarlet." I found it somehow appropriate since, for many, Halloween is a way to exorcise fears, imagining and living them, but, ultimately, controlling them.

Halloween is not a celebration that is part of my culture.

If we do commemorate the deceased on November 2nd and the Saints on November 1st, Halloween was something purely "American" just up to ten or fifteen years ago.

Now, Halloween is merely an excuse for some extra parties in clubs and pubs, but most of us do not carve pumpkins, decorate the house, or wander on the 31st dressed like sexy zombies or sexy nurses. (The sexy part seems substantial).

That said, I have been utterly crazy about Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts since I was in elementary school. If *maybe* I do not own all the 17,897 strips, I definitely daily read and quote the large majority of them.

How is this connected with Halloween, you are asking.

Well. My exposure to the whole hype —candies, carving, and all that jazz— derives from a bunch of adorable Li'l Folks waiting for "The Great Pumpkin" to rise from the pumpkin patch on Halloween evening.

Unfortunately, though, (and I am quoting here) "when the Peanuts strip was first introduced in Italy, Halloween was almost unknown there as a festivity. The earlier translations turned the pumpkin into a watermelon ("Il Grande Cocomero") because it was felt to be a more Mediterranean fruit-figure and its name sounded better."

So, yeah, I grew up with no Halloween and... The Big Watermelon.

I carved my first pumpkin in 2007, and I tried hard to keep the tradition each year, global pandemic permitting, up to yesterday.

Except for one time, I always represented my "obsession of the year", something nerdy and niche, obscure to the large majority of people.

So, I couldn't help but attempt a "Thrawnkin" this year.

I am not very positive about the results, but it was a total blast.