Fall escapes for the Halloween season: Corn mazes and pumpkin patches (Video)

Fall escapes for the Halloween season: Corn mazes and pumpkin patches (Video)
October 2, 2012
Rhetta Akamatsu
examiner.com

Fall escapes
Halloween
corn mazes
pumpkin patches

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It's Fall, when the leaves are turning, and October, when Halloween is drawing near. Suddenly, corn mazes and pumpkin patches abound!

While most of the mazes and pumpkin patches are not in historic places, they do connect us to our past for hundreds of years. Stories of mazes are abundant in mythology, and people have enjoyed wandering in mazes since the ancient Egyptians created the first known ones. They also sometimes symbolize spiritual or life journeys. Corn, of course, is associated with the harvest throughout centuries of time. But mostly, corn mazes are just fun!

How did pumpkins get associated with Halloween?

Centuries ago in Ireland, there was a popular tale about a man named Stingy Jack who tricked the Devil. Because of this, when Jack died, Heaven didn't want him and neither did Hell. He was forced to wander the earth with nothing but a coal for light, which he placed in a turnip. This tale became known as "Jack O'Lantern" and was so popular people began carving faces into turnips and potatoes and putting coals inside them to make their own "Jack O'Lantern" lights. Immigrants to America soon found that pumpkins worked even better than turnips or potatoes, and a Halloween tradition was born.
Pumpkins
Pumpkins
Photo credit:
Wikimedia Commons

Here are some places where you can experience corn mazes and pumpkin patches

Uncle Shuck's Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch

4520 Highway 53 E, Dawsonville, GA 30534

1-888-OSHUCKS
or (770) 772-6223

Old McDermitt's Farm - Corn maze, hay rides, pumpkin patch

102 Baxter Rd., Carrollton, GA 30117

678-850-8948

Uncle Bob's Pumpkin Patch (Corn maze and other activities, too)

3781 E Happy Valley Circle, Newnan, GA 30263

770-253-8100

Buford Corn Maze

4470 Bennett Rd, Buford, GA 30519

678-835-7198