It is well known that the Christian feast day Hallowmas, or All Saint's Day, was meant to usurp the ancient druidic rites and other pagan celebrations of the fall harvest and the onset of darkness. On the last night of October, the druids set bonfires across the land to protect themselves from the spirits of the dead which freely roamed. Soothsayers proclaimed visions of the future after ritually jumping over rows of candles. This Celtic festival of Samhain was also a night of ghosts and demons, with rowdy bands of children known as guisers prowling the streets in hideous masks.

The rutabaga, fruit of the subterranean darkness, was a central fixture of the Samhain. The young guisers carried jack o'lanterns carved from rutabagas (or turnips), a tradition based on the legend of a blacksmith named Jack who mortgaged his soul to the demons of the underworld. Jack found his way through the netherworld by hoisting a large hollowed rutabaga containing a glowing coal. Unfortunately, this noble tradition has been undermined by the modern introduction of the upstart pumpkin, Cucurbita pepo, to replace the ancient rutabaga as the jack o'lantern. Cucurbita pepois a pulpy and malodorous gourd, consisting mainly of seeds and a stringy mass at its center. It is inedible without the addition of vast quantities of sugar and cinnamon.

Revisionist etymologists have begun to challenge the widespread assumption, fostered by the Anglican church and others, that Hallowe'en is derived from All Hallows Eve. Ancient Celtic manuscripts, recently uncovered, refer to Hollow's Eve in clear reference to the hollowed rutabagas which the guisers carried. The modern Hallowe'en is therefore nothing more than a convenient mistranslation and contraction of the the Celtic Evening of the Hollowed Rutabagas. Thus our culture has lost a splendid metaphor: the fecund and tenacious rutabaga defying the sense of growing darkness, loss and emptiness associated with the season. We have also lost, as a staple in our diets, a tasty, inexpensive, colorful and nutritious root.

[For additional information, see the London Guardian's account of the origins of Hallowe'en and the jack o'lantern.