We spent all of October getting in the mood for the holiday today, beginning with our purchase of Goodnight Goon, A Petrifying Parody after Violet begged for it on three separate visits to the bookstore, and continuing with multiple viewings of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and The Adventures of Ichabod (narrated by Bing Crosby). Violet and her daddy carved a pumpkin, we have been dancing non-stop to The Addams Family theme song, and on Saturday we trick-or-treated and played holiday-themed games at our church's autumn social.
The most memorable, mind-altering, dare I say breathtaking experience, however, was The Great Jack 'O Lantern Blaze in Hudson Valley, which their website(hudsonvalley.org) calls, "A land art installation informed by artists such as Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, Donald Judd, and Andy Goldsworthy." They aren't kidding. More than 4,000 intricately carved pumpkins lit up the gardens of Van Cortlandt Manor, an historic house that once belonged to one of New York's most prominent families.
Our mouths were agape at life-sized dinosaurs made up entirely of pumpkins in one vignette, and delicate, lacy Celtic configurations in another. There were fish, butterflies, and of course, spooky ghosts and goblins.
The kids were into it, though, truth be told, no pumpkin could be as fascinating to them as the cheap holiday trinkets in the gift shop. Light sabers, anyone?
Happy Halloween!
