The Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze and Legend Weekend

The annual Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze and Legend Weekend is coming up in October and features an elaborate display of more than 4,000 hand-carved pumpkins, and an opportunity to see the Headless Horseman make his fabled ride.

The Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze
The Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze is a Halloween spectacle integrating thousands of hand-carved pumpkins lit up throughout the landscape of Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, in various thematic and conceptual arrangements.

Themed areas will include the giant Undersea Aquarium, the Dead Sea, life-sized dinosaurs, an enormous hillside spider web with baby spiders and a mother watching over them, still forming “pupa” Jacks in cocoons dangling from trees, Celtic knots, a ghostly “outer space” gallery, a circus arena with clown carvings, Dracula coffins, tombstones studded with half Jacks, a skeleton graveyard, African masks, and more.

The Blaze Blog is chronicling preparations for the events. Video-savvy visitors who attend during the first two weekends of Blaze are encouraged to enter the Blaze YouTube Video Contest by filming Blaze, editing their work, and uploading their video (three minutes or less) onto YouTube by Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m. The creator of the published video that in the view of Historic Hudson Valley’s judges best achieves the contest goal of capturing the creativity and excitement of Blaze will win a 40-inch, flat-screen, plasma television, a DVD player, and a collection of DVDs of classic Halloween movies, all provided by K104.7 Radio. Full contest details and requirements are online at www.hudsonvalley.org.

This event takes place on Oct. 5-7, 11-14, 18-21, and 24-31. Advance tickets are a must. Ticket prices for Blaze vary by evening: $14-16 for adults, $10-12 for ages 5-17, and free for children under five. Admission is by timed ticket only. The first reservation for each evening is 6:30 pm. Buy tickets online at www.hudsonvalley.org or by calling 914-631-8200 ($2 per ticket surcharge for phone orders).

Legend Weekend
Sleepy Hollow Country’s classic Halloween extravaganza, Legend Weekend at Washington Irving’s Sunnyside in Tarrytown, N.Y., and Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow, NY, features a family-friendly daytime program and a spookier evening program. Visitors, who are encouraged to come in costume, can watch Washington Irving’s Headless Horseman take his fabled ride on a black steed.

The daytime events take place at both sites on Oct. 27-28, 10 am – 4 pm The evening events take place at Philipsburg Manor only, and on five nights: Oct. 19-20 and 26-28. The first reservation each evening is at 6 pm.

Advance reservations are a MUST for both evening events and attendance is by timed ticket only. Ticket prices for Legend Weekend Nights are $14 for adults, $10 for ages 5-17, and free for children under five. Tickets are available online at www.hudsonvalley.org or by calling 914-631-8200 ($2 per ticket surcharge for phone orders). Historic Hudson Valley members attend for free but MUST have advanced reservations, which you can make online.

All events are held rain or shine and all are suitable for children. All proceeds support Historic Hudson Valley, the non-profit educational organization which owns and operates the historic sites and produces these events.

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About the author

As The Genre Traveler, Carma Spence loves to view the world through Genre-Coloured glasses. In other words, she sees the world through a lens of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, where trash cans can be Daleks in disguise and neighborhood forests can harbor faeries and sprites. Magic realism is real! Or at least you can choose to see the world that way to add to the fun and awe of life.