The Big Pumpkin

In the spirit of Culture Day (文化の日, Bunka no Hi), a Japanese national holiday held annually on November 3rd celebrated for the purpose of promoting culture, the arts, and academic endeavour; the kindergarten I teach at put on an English play entitled “The Big Pumpkin.”  The Big Pumpkin is our Halloween version of the “The Giant Turnip” or “The Enormous Turnip,” a children’s fairy tale of Russian or Slavic origin.  The story was first published in 1863 in the collection Russian Folk Tales, edited and published by Aleksandr Afanas’ev.  It is a progressive story, in which a grandfather plants a turnip, which grows so large that he cannot pull it up himself.  He then asks the grandmother for help, and they together still cannot pull it up.  Successively more people are recruited to help, until they finally pull the turnip, or in our adaptation the pumpkin up from under the ground.  Sit back, relax, and press play to watch our off-Broadway, I guess way off-Broadway and way-overseas showing of The Big Turnip, with a special appearance by U.S. President Barack Obama!  Please don’t mind the early heckling by the younger 4-year old students, we were able to quiet them down eventually!.. haha!