WATCH: 7k carved pumpkins create fantastical display at Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze

Halloween decorations are seen on display during the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze in Croton-on-Hudson, New York on 22 October 2020, featuring over 7,000 hand-carved, illuminated pumpkins set against the mysterious backdrop of Van Cortlandt Manor’s 17th-century buildings and riverside landscape. Croton-on-Hudson, a quaint village an hour north of New York that’s thrived thanks to a tale written some 200 years ago, is holding its annual Halloween bash – with the election and the pandemic lending an extra dose of chills. The October 31st holiday is an industry of its own in this picturesque corner of the Hudson River Valley. Tens of thousands of tourists from all over the world venture there seeking the spirit of ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’, an 1820 story by Washington Irving about a headless horseman who haunts a superstitious schoolteacher. Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP