What do hollowed-out turnips and a man named Jack have in common? Nothing, unless you’re interested in the origins of Halloween.

Every year around Oct. 31, stores fill their shelves with bags and bags of candy, farms begin harvesting mammoth pumpkins and people of all ages talk about how they’ll be dressing at their school or office costume party. But what does it all mean?

“Each culture has a different background on the history of Halloween,” said Tom May, director of campus ministries. May and other Christians believe that Halloween is pagan in origin. For the most part, they’re right.

A Web site devoted entirely to the history of Halloween, www.tartans.com, sheds some light, so to speak, on the subject.

The site says ancient druids, who inhabited what we now call Great Britain, would celebrate the passing of one season to the next by holding “fire festivals.” One of these festivals, called “samhain,” took place from Oct. 31 through Nov. 1.

These particular days of the year were considered important by the druids, who believed that during this time the boundaries between our world and the world of the dead were weakened, allowing the spirits of the recently deceased to cross over and possess the living.

During this warm and fuzzy time of the year, the druids would dress up in the scariest costumes they could make and parade through their villages to scare off any lost souls who may be looking for bodies to inhabit.

Getting more and more festive as the night wore on, druid priests would go from house to house asking for goodies such as fatted calves and black sheep. The inhabitants of the houses who dealt out the best loot were promised prosperity and those who refused to give were cursed and threatened — thus, the origins of the phrase most commonly heard on Halloween, “trick or treat.”

Why we find ourselves carving pumpkins on this holiday has a little more humorous of a story behind it. For this explanation, the scene moves from Great Britain to Ireland, where we meet a man who would change the history of produce forever.

According to Irish folklore, there once lived a man named Jack who was known for being a prankster and a drunk. One night, he tricked the devil into climbing a tree, and once in the tree, quickly carved an image of a cross on the trunk to trap him. Jack made a promise to the devil that he would free him if the devil promised in return to never tempt Jack into sin again. Upon Jack’s death, because of his lust for life and booze, he was barred from Heaven, and ultimately barred from Hell for having tricked the Devil. Trapped between two worlds, Jack was doomed to wander the earth until the end of time with only a single ember, carried in a hollowed-out turnip, to warm him and light his way.

In Ireland, they originally used turnips for their jack-o-lanterns, but upon arriving in the new world, they discovered that pumpkins were easier to obtain and to carve.

Folklore stories on the history of Halloween customs, for the most part, go hand-in-hand with what the Christian religion believes. A pamphlet written by David L. Brown, titled “The Dark Side Of Halloween,” paints a picture of the event as being harmful because of its focus on the occult.

“The two most frequent ways children are introduced into the occult are through rock music and Halloween,” Brown stated.

For those who find the holiday evil or offensive, there are alternative ways to have a celebration Oct. 31, without involving Halloween.

Brown suggests replacing spooky festivities with wholesome games and other family-orientated activities. However, most people probably would opt for an event that came with the promise of candy.