Pregnant nuns, fishnet stockings and chains. There isn’t really a holiday quite like Halloween. Most people know what they like to do on Halloween. But how many can say they know the history behind the holiday?

Sacramento State junior Ashley Emery believes that Halloween is an old pagan holiday that comes from England, brought over when people came here to settle.

Marque Vassar, a senior, thinks that it began during the Salem-witch trials when Halloween was a special day to go out and practice witchcraft.

The earliest Halloween celebrations took place more than 2,000 years ago. The Celtic order of Druid priests, who lived in what is now England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and northern France, used to honor Samhain, the lord of the dead, on the evening of Oct. 31, and the day of Nov. 1.

They believed that on Oct. 31, Samhain assembled the souls of all who had died during the year. This day was known as the Vigil of Samhain. In order to pay for their sins, their souls were put into the bodies of animals.

The bigger the sin, the lower the animal. It was during the Vigil that goblins, spirits and fairies were thought to roam the Earth.

In Rome, a festival honoring the Goddess Pomona was held on Nov. 1. Pomona was the mistress of fruits and gardens. To thank Pomona for the harvest, the Romans laid out gifts to honor her. When the Romans invaded and ruled the Celts, the two celebrations held in the fall melted into one large festival.

During the Middle Ages, Halloween became known as the Night of the Witch. It was the night when the devil and all his followers would gather to perform unholy acts.

Hoping to turn this day into a holiday of its own, the Church established Nov. 1 as All Hallow’s Day. On that day, all the saints who had no church holiday were honored.

As much as the Church wished the pagan rituals of Pomona Day and the Vigil of Samhain to disappear, people around the world continued pagan celebrations on the evening before All Hallow’s Day. Eventually, Oct. 31 became known as All Hallows Even, a night for magic and superstition. All Hallows Even was eventually shortened to Hallowe’en, which became Halloween.

From the Church and All Saints’ Day came the tradition of honoring the dead. From Pomona Day came apples, nuts and symbols of the harvest. And from the Vigil of Samhain came magic, evil spirits and goblins. Halloween, it’s your traditionally untraditional hodgepodge of a holiday.