Reader @Stringerplz shared these great pictures of her carved dodo pumpkin!
@malki not Halloween Keith. Also not a sea lion. In other words an utter failure. I beg forgiveness #notallpumpkins pic.twitter.com/L3QvTolUNx
— Paul Bunyip (@Stringerplz) October 27, 2014
Modeled after, of course, the dodos with the time!
PREVIOUSLY:
• Piranhamoose-O’Lantern
• A New Piranhamoose-O’Lantern
In her tweet above, Stringerplz mentions “Halloween Keith.” Some of you older readers will no doubt remember Halloween Keith from your childhood.
I'll never understand how it came to pass that everyone's happy to play along with "Santa Claus" but Halloween Keith never really caught on.
— MALKenstein ! (@malki) October 26, 2014
Halloween Keith was the best! Dressed as a mummy, eyes two dripping eggs, bag of candy on his face like an oatbag, footprints always wet.
— MALKenstein ! (@malki) October 26, 2014
I remember going to the cornbake and offering Halloween Keith a ceremonial cob. Of course now I realize it was just a man in a costume.
— MALKenstein ! (@malki) October 26, 2014
The only thing we still have of the Halloween Keith mythos in culture today is the game Truth or Dare
— MALKenstein ! (@malki) October 26, 2014
I have written some more about Halloween Keith.
Some say Halloween Keith was a corn farmer who died in a drought year, through laziness or ill-management of his crop; others say he was born from the cornfields themselves, a new form of smut who took legs in an attempt to become a man. Inside his wrappings are either bony limbs hung with rotted flesh, or bulbous, fungal lumps of corn. Perhaps both, working in concert…
Once a year, on the eve of All Saints’ Day, children from the local parish used to go door-to-door collecting food donations to help the less fortunate. Because charity is most virtuous when done anonymously, the children would wear masks, or dress up in costume — sometimes as adults, but other times as monsters and evil things, as a reminder that even the demons may repent and do good works.
This presented the perfect opportunity for Halloween Keith to also disguise himself and collect food from unsuspecting families, enough to feed him for another year…
— Malkidian Geometry: The Forgotten Mythos of Halloween Keith
OBLIGATORY REMINDER: Only two days and a bit remain on the Go Away, Sea Lions shirt!