Over two thousand Jack-O-Lanterns will shine at Kejimkujik National Park this Thanksgiving weekend. For the 12th year in a row, Keji will be lit by the glow of carved pumpkins and the moon. Kejimkujik has become a Thanksgiving family tradition for so many that it is one of the park's busiest weekends of the year. Visitors cook their Thanksgiving feasts on camp fires and enjoy the rich fall colours of Kejimkujik as their backdrop. The additional lure for visitors is the incredible programming and the thrill of a challenge. The Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest is a huge hit and people's creativity shines. For those interested in less manual labour, on Saturday night, (October 8) Parks Canada and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada invite visitors to drop by the Sky Circle for International Observe the Moon Night. Between 7p.m. and 10p.m., volunteers from RASC will help visitors observe the splendour of the moon and of Kejimkujik's pristine night sky through telescopes. And at 8p.m., there will be a 1.5 hour night hike to explore the forest by the light of the moon. On Sunday morning, it's the Annual Cold Turkey Dip based on a cold turkey swim done in 1908, captured in the book "The Tent Dwellers".
The weekend will culminate at the Outdoor Amphitheatre and the Annual Thanksgiving Weekend Awards Gala where winners of the pumpkin carving contest and the Friends of Keji Photo Contest are announced. For more information visit
http://www.parkscanada.gc.ca/keji
