Of all the Halloween traditions, jackalanturns might be the most synonymous with the holiday.

Every year, millions of families scoop out the goopy innards of pumpkins and carve

creepy little faces into them that glow in the candlelight. But what most people

don't know is the folklore behind why we carve jackalantrons. Well, what have I told you that those little porch

decorations have demonic origins? This is the legend of Stinjy Jack. In a small village in Ireland hundreds of years ago lived a devious man named

Stinj Jack. Jack was known to be the most manipulative, conniving, and thoughtless man in all of Ireland.

He was the type of guy who never offered anyone help.

He cheated at every card game,

and he was willing to do whatever it took to scheme the other villagers out of their money.

His reputation was so big that it's said to have reached the ends of the earth

and even well beyond that. See one day the devil learned of Stinjy Jack.

He thought Jack was the most vile man he had ever heard of and for that reason he had to have his soul.

So that Halloween night as the owls sat on tree branches and a breeze kicked up dried leaves, Jack stumbled home from a pub.

That night, the veil between the living and the dead thinned, and the devil was able to slip through into our world. He waited for

Jack in the crisp autumn air by a water well. To what do I owe this pleasure? Jack asked as he approached the devil.

He was a smug man.

No one would ever dare joke at a time like this.

The devil was almost offended,

but he appreciated the lack of humility.

It made him want Jack's soul even more.

And he made his intentions known to the drunk man.

Jack knew that this was the end of the line for him, so he asked the devil for one last wish.

...