October is a wonderful month. We start to see the changes in the air. The leaves change colors. There’s beautiful mums everywhere. There’s also lots and lots of pumpkins. October is one of my favorite months because there is so much to do.
Two years ago, we went to Rise of the Jack O’Lanterns for the first time and we fell in love. It is amazing to see thousands of pumpkins craved and shaved. It is very artistic to see how creative and how much detail goes into each craved and/or shaved pumpkin. This year we went for the first time with our son. We had tickets for 6:45p.m which we ordered months in advanced. This event sells out very quickly. They also have Groupon deals at times but its for a later time slot. We were late to the event but we got right in and we in the 7p.m slot. There were a lot of people there. When you enter, they sale food, hot beverages and lots of light up things for kids to wear. My son got a necklace with jack o’lanterns that light up. So did my nieces. We made this event a family event and it was wonderful. It’s great for young children because it is not scary at all.
I used my phone to check us in which was quick. Once we were checked in, we continued through the event. This event is held at Old Westbury Gardens which is beautiful during the spring and summer months. Once we entered we walked a little bit and that’s when we saw the first of the Jack’s. It was amazing to see how many craved pumpkins there were.
We entered the cemetery of Jack O’Lanterns first. Some Jack’s were on the floor and they were lite up. Then there were Jack’s that were stacked and created to look like a skeleton. It was amazing to see these because it takes a lot of time for these carves to carve or shave the pumpkins. Then we saw shaved pumpkins into Peanuts. Peanuts is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary so they had about 3 pumpkins shaved into different scenes of Peanuts. On the other side of the road, there were typical horror movie Jack O’ Lanterns from Freddy to Frankenstein. As we continued down the path, we found Sesame Street, Dory (because the movie is coming out on DVD and Blu Ray on November 15th), other Disney movies like Frozen, Beauty and the Beast and so many other Disney movies. As we continued along the path, we found Superheroes. These Jack’s were stacked to and shaved to look like Spiderman, Captain America, Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, etc. They also created the symbols for Spiderman, Batman and Superman.
Next we entered the path of Dinosaurs. They stacked pumpkins to look like large dinosaurs. It was amazing to see how high they went with these pumpkins and how they were craved to look like dinosaurs. They also had the New York Mets, New York Yankees, New York Jets, New York Giants Jack O’Lanterns. That was the main part of the event. Next we continued walking and we walked through a forest. This forest was lit with red and there were Jack O’Lanterns everywhere. Some were placed in-between large branches.
The last part of the event was Star Wars as well as famous people that died during the year. I can not say enough about this amazing event. I love this event and look forward to visiting every year with my family and making it a family tradition for the kids.
Jollica's Wonderful World 