Blue Pumpkins

It’s T Minus 4 Days until Halloween. By now, I’m sure your community is lit up with jack-o-lanterns in almost every colour of the rainbow. Some of these colours are just for fun, but did you know that a few of the colours actually have special meanings?

One of these special pumpkin colours is the blue pumpkin.

Strap yourselves in for this one, Folks, because never before have I witnessed so much controversy over a 99-cent piece of plastic.

History

Blue pumpkins are–according to social media–meant to designate that the child carrying it is autistic. And like just about everything in the autism community, it has sparked a lot of debate and hard feelings.

Unlike The Teal Pumpkin Project which was an official campaign started by an allergy organization, no one is 100% sure how blue pumpkins became “a thing.” They seem to have just appeared a few years ago in a couple of viral social media posts.

The idea behind blue pumpkins is to provide a recognizable symbol that communicates that the child trick-or-treating may not act how you are expecting. For example, they may not be wearing a costume because of sensory issues, or they may be non-verbal and unable to say, “Trick or Treat.” The goal is to encourage people at their doors to be more kind and less judgmental towards a child holding a blue pumpkin.

It sounds like a nice idea on paper, but I will be honest, it’s combating a problem that I didn’t even know existed, even as the mother of an autistic child.

I have never personally had any issues while trick-or-treating with my kids. Perhaps things are different in warmer climates, but here in the frigid north, it’s not unusual to have snow on the ground by Halloween. When a trick-or-treater rings my doorbell, I answer with an enthusiastic “Hi! I love your costume!” then drop candy into their bucket as quickly as possible and shut the door against the cold again.

Does anyone have any personal, first-hand experience with unkind candy-givers? I do see Facebook rants about people refusing to give candy to a child who didn’t say, “Trick or Treat” properly, or even demanding that a child tell them all about their costume before handing over a one-inch chocolate bar, but on Facebook, one can never tell fact from fabrication.

Well, whether or not the problem is as wide-spread as social media says it is, the Facebook rants have racked up a whole list of pros and cons about carrying blue buckets, and have even drawn autism organizations into the debate. Here are just a few of the points I have seen online:

Pros of Blue Pumpkins

• A blue pumpkin could signal to residents to act gently around certain children. Maybe skip the spooky greeting they had planned, and keep the noise to a minimum while they are in their yard.
  
• A blue pumpkin may help parents feel more at ease. If enough people came to know the meaning of a blue pumpkin, and adapted their behavior accordingly, an autism parent could relax a little during this outing, and not feel the need to constantly “run interference” and prevent misunderstandings.
  
• Perhaps some families could take the blue pumpkin concept to heart, and make their yard sensory-friendly and safe for sensitive children. Maybe someday, a blue pumpkin on a porch could come to symbolize that this home will not have strobe lights, eerie music, jump-scares, or a candy-giver in a scary costume, letting autism parents scope out their neighborhoods ahead of time for safe trick-or-treating destinations.

Cons of Blue Pumpkins

• Some families are deeply uncomfortable with the idea of signaling to every passerby that their child is autistic. Autistic children can be more vulnerable than other children due to being non-verbal, or extra trusting, or suggestible. Letting every bully or predator in sight in on this information sounds like a very bad idea.
  
• The colour blue is problematic to some. Blue is the colour used in branding by an organization called Autism Speaks, which is generally out of favour with the autism community. (That subject could take multiple posts of its own!) But, suffice to say, that some people in the community are careful not to associate themselves with Autism Speaks, even just in colour.
  
• The colour blue also presents a different problem for autism families–namely, many autistic children are very literal and concrete thinkers. Try suggesting to an autistic child that they should have a blue pumpkin, and they will most likely look at you like you are crazy and tell you that pumpkins are orange. How helpful can blue pumpkins be if their target audience doesn’t want to use them?
  
• Does it even help? Many people are not aware of what a blue pumpkin means, even inside the autism community. How likely is it that your block’s resident grumpy-pants knows what it means, or that they would care even if they did? Is a blue pumpkin any more effective than just avoiding the houses of grumpy people, as most families already do?

Conclusion

Blue pumpkins may or may not be recognized in your community as a symbol of autism. While it can’t hurt to be extra kind to a child carrying a blue pumpkin, you could also just greet that child with the same warmth you greet every other trick-or-treater at your door. You know, like the decent human being that I know 99% of you already are.

Do you have any thoughts on blue pumpkins? Respectful discussion is welcome in the comment section below.

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