Grotesque grimacing faces and eyes glowing with a menacing light that emanates from deep within their soulless bodies. Soon they'll be everywhere. No prizes for guessing what. The Halloween pumpkin otherwise known as a jack-o'-lantern.

To find the origins of this unusual custom requires a journey back into the murky past, to the time when the Celts occupied Britain and Ireland about two thousand years ago. It seems that this is where the ghostly pumpkin head got its start, specifically in old Ireland.