Pumpkin

Empty-headedness; foolishness. When double, a symbol of the material world and the underworld (consciousness and unconscious). Even as a single gourd, the pumpkin has associations with the underworld, as it plays a role in fall harvest rites and the dying of the natural world.

Associated with Halloween – so could suggest meeting the dead in your dreams, or 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day which is dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers. Within Allhallowtide, the traditional focus of All Hallows’ Eve revolves around the theme of using “humour and ridicule to confront the power of death.” Which is probably a way to ease the anxiety most people feel about death and the dead.

Its origins may be from the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, but it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain”, which comes from the Old Irish for “summer’s end”

Samhain/Calan Gaeaf marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the ‘darker half’ of the year. Like Beltane/Calan Mai, it was seen as a liminal time, when the spirits or fairies (the Aos Sí) could more easily come into our world and were particularly active.

A gourd was often used as a mask, but a pumpkin also may be likened to an alchemical cauldron, especially of the ‘vegetable soul.”

Useful questions or hints:

What was the pumpkin used for or seen as in the dream?

Was there any ghostliness or strangeness in the dream?

Was it part of festivities or a festival?

See Myths Legends and Fairy Stories – Symbolism of Dreams and their Imagery – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams