Fall Guide

The Great Pumpkins

The Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular celebrates 30 years of insanely detailed pumpkin carving


When something happens often enough you start to take it for granted. It’s expected, it’s been done; same thing, different day. Yet even after 30 years, the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at Roger Williams Park Zoo never fails to impress. The crew at Passion for Pumpkins will start crafting the larger, more intricate pumpkins in September in preparation for the month-long pumpkin patch that winds through the zoo from October 4-November 4. Given the sense of wonder the display stirs in visitors, it’s only fitting that this year’s theme is “Magic.”

Maybe it’s the intricate detail work and painstaking craftsmanship that goes into each pumpkin, whether it bares a scene from a famous film, the face of a beloved personality, or an exotic wild animal. Maybe it’s the pumpkins themselves, totaling in the thousands with the biggest of the bunch almost the size of a Smart car. Say what you want about routine and habit, but this is one Rhode Island tradition that never gets old. Providence