Monday, October 31, 2011

pumpkins

the elevation
to divine status
of extravagant
pumpkins --
October

. . . . . . . .

The OED word of the day for the erasure poem | commentary is 'pumpkinification." I love everything about this word except trying to spit it out.

I found it fascinating that it was first used nearly 2000 years ago by Seneca, as a title of a satire about the deification of the Roman Emperor Claudius.

I had expected the citations to be of Cinderella. Seeking further info in Wikipedia, it turns out there are thousands of  folk tale variations on the Cinderella story, going back to - coincidentally - the ancient Greeks, but it only got really popular when the French author  Charles Perrault in 1697 added a few embellishments to the story: the pumpkin, the fairy-godmother and the glass slippers.

The image is one I put on my niece's Halloween card.  Happy Great Pumpkin Day to all!

2 comments:

Peggy said...

Spending Halloween in Texas was a bit like having Thanksgiving in San Diego will be. Lovely but just a little off. Where's the color?

Lucky Miss Niece. I hope she treasures her cards.

Happy traveling!

alkiart said...

There does seem to be some kind of suspension of reality at play! Thanks, Peggy!