By: Maret Elgren, Reporter
OMAHA, Neb- Halloween typically brings to mind gory scenes of haunted houses and horror movies. This year, however, the Omaha community embraced a less spooky side of the holiday with the city’s first-ever Jack O’Lantern World event.
Beginning on September 30, Jack O’Lantern World brought together 30 artisans to create a scenic walking tour through Mahoney State Park in Ashland, Nebraska that will be open for a month. The trail covered three-quarters of a mile and consisted of 17 distinct worlds of hand-carved Jack O’Lanterns, illustrating themes such as inspirational women, breast cancer support, Día de Los Muertos, the state of Nebraska and the country as a whole.
Event manager Vicki Clark says that the sponsoring organization, All Community Events, started Jack O’Lantern World last year in Lake Zurich, Illinois. When the demand came for Jack O’Lantern World to appear in more cities, Clark says that organizers were eager to add a stop in Omaha.
“We also do Santa’s Rock N Lights in Werner Park,” Clark says, “and we love the people here and Omaha’s been good to us, so we thought we’d try Halloween.”
Clark says that All Community Events wanted to live up to its name and create an event that the entire community can come together to enjoy, regardless of age or tolerance for Halloween spookiness.
“The event started with Peter, the owner of All Community Events,” Clark says. “He’s all about community, and he believes in bringing communities all together.”
Already being the sponsors of Werner Park’s Santa’s Rock N Lights event, the owner of All Community Events wanted to bring communities together in October in a similarly inclusive way.
“He wanted to do something that wasn’t scary or gory or a haunted house, because not everybody likes that,” Clark says.
Jenny, a Jack O’Lantern World attendee, says that her daughter invited her to the event after seeing it online, and decided to make it an opportunity to gather with her entire family. Jenny says that there was something for everyone to enjoy, and was impressed by the artists’ craftsmanship.
“I liked the American flag display, and the Nebraska,” Jenny says, “and I just think the volume of them was amazing, that so many artists came together and did this.”
This voluminous display of careful craftsmanship took months of preparation, according to Clark, who says that event planning began in January.
“We started planning the show, actually in January, with ideas and a panel,” Clark says. “We have, like, 30 artists who do all the carving and they started in April.”
Despite all of the months of hard work and planning that went into the event, Clark says that she hopes families will continue to gather and celebrate the Halloween season at Jack O’Lantern World for years to come.
