The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, Croton on Hudson

Its almost Halloween...and you plan to carve the old Jack O'Lantern again...triangle eyes, triangle nose.....yawn.....

What you need is some inspiration!

You can find it at the Van Cortlandt Manor located in  my little village of Croton-on-Hudson because we have what must be the world's largest display of carved Jack O'Lanterns...it is called the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze.

Why do we have such a thing?

Well, Croton is in 'Sleepy Hollow Country' and Sleepy Hollow is the home of the Headless Horseman. It is right down the road from us.

 (And he rides through the countryside every Halloween)....thus, we are a natural for Jack O'Lanterns.....

That is my opinion as to the reason why we hold it although the website Things You Should Do says this:

"Blaze’s creative director, Michael Natiello, said the true inspiration for Blaze is the landscape of Van Cortlandt Manor itself. The event is really a land art installation informed by artists such as Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, Donald Judd, and Andy Goldsworthy. Various arrangements and placements of pumpkins are meant to complement and draw attention to the site’s architecture, history, and landscape."

So I guess Andy Goldsworthy was responsible for this extravaganza?....hmmm. and all along, I thought it was the Headless Horseman...

 

Every year the display of this electrifying Halloween event gets better - it now features more than 4,000 individually hand-carved, illuminated jack o’ lanterns.

Meander through  slithering snakes, shrunken heads, a giant spider web, an undersea aquarium, super-sized dinosaurs, pirates, ghosts, plus a mammoth exhibition of mummies and a pyramid...straight out of ancient Egypt - all made of jack o' lanterns!

This may inspire you to do more with that pumpkin of yours:

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