Highlights Archives
It's a Celebration of Autumn at Wade House
As the greenery of summer steadily fades into autumnal hues of red and gold, Wade House in Greenbush will pause to celebrate the changing of the season with a festive Autumn Celebration on Saturday and Sunday, October 18-19. Visitors will learn about the origins of American Halloween customs; play seasonal games of the period; enjoy hot cider in the stagecoach inn; take a two-mile, open-air, horse-drawn wagon ride; carve pumpkins and turnips; and listen to classic renditions of scary (but family-friendly) stories in the candlelit Herrling Sawmill.
Bring the whole family out to learn the Irish origins of the jack-o'-lantern and experience the tastes and tasks once prevalent during the 1860s. Discover how the Irish originally carved jack-o'-lanterns from turnips — their vegetable of choice for making jack-o'-lanterns until Irish immigrants to America found that pumpkins were not only more abundant than turnips, but larger and far easier to carve. Once outside the inn, guests can try their hand at crafting their own Irish jack-o'-lanterns from turnips as well as from the more traditional American favorite, the pumpkin. In the Wade House kitchen, learn about other Celtic-born Halloween customs such as using apple peelings and burning nuts to foretell one's fortunes in love.
At the nearby Herrling Sawmill, enjoy some Halloween storytelling as the mill's doors are closed and the building darkened for candlelight tales of All Hallows Eve — Halloween's original name — when spirits of the dead were said to revisit the mortal world and roam their old haunts. Just a stone's throw away, at the Dockstader Blacksmith Shop, see a blacksmith ply his time-honored trade and take part in the traditional Halloween games of snap apple and bobbing, or "ducking," for apples.
For complete details on admission, location and contact information, visit the Wade House visitor information pages.
:: Posted October 13, 2008
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