Walpurgisnacht, Night of the Witch's

 

Walpurgis Night, also known as 'Walpurgisnacht or Hexennacht  english Night of the Witches', is a Germanic pagan festival celebrated each year on 30 April. The celebration includes lighting bonfires at sunset and singing, it signifies  the arrival of spring.

Walpurgis Night originated in ancient  pagan festivities that celebrated the coming of spring. It always falls on April 30th the eve of May 1st exactly six months before Halloween.


Halloween and Walpurgisnacht both have their origins in pagan celebrations ( Samhain and Beltane) they marked the changing of the seasons. They are also believed to be when the veil between the spirit worlds and ours was at its thinnest.

.Saint Walpurga.

During the christianization of Europe and the forced conversion of formerly pagan worshipers the celebration like many other's  at the time became blended, a combination of old world beliefs and the newly emerging christian church

According to legend of an English nun named Walpurga came to Germany in the late eighth century with the mission of Christianizing the Saxons. She later became an abbess at the Heidenheim monastery.


Saint Walpurga was known for ridding "pest, rabies and whooping cough”, Walpurga was also celebrateed for  putting an end to pagan sorcery. After her canonisation, Christians would pray via Walpurga to God, to protect them from witchcraft.

Walpurga is traditionally associated with May 1 because of a medieval account of her being canonised on that date in 870 AD. The date’s overlap with the pagan celebration is believed to   coincidental, but by entwining the two customs, pagans could continue celebrating their spring festival without fear of reprisal from the church.

on April 30 thousands of Germans  make pilgrimages to Saint Walpurga’s tomb in Eichstätt, to collect a vial of her healing oil, serving as a reminder of the curious dual history of this unusual celebration.

pagan beliefs  like herbalism and old rituals, continued into the 16th century and were prevalent in the more remote parts of Germany, like the Harz Mountains, until the widespread witch hysteria began to take hold throughout Europe. 

 

Pagan practices that  until then had been more or less accepted were suddenly deemed “evil” and “superstitious” and those practicing them were often tortured and later condemned to death. Medieval Germany had some of the largest and most gruesome witch hunts in history. Walpurgisnacht is even sometimes referred to as the Hexenbrunnen (the burning of the witches) due to its bloody past.

This mass hysteria coalesced around the belief that Mount Brocken - the highest peak of the Harz Mountains - was the scene of Witches’ Sabbaths. These were said to be wild and orgiastic gatherings at which witches would meet with Satan to plot trouble, mischief and evil for the coming year. This was commonly believed to take place on April 30 - the date that Pagan legend claims, the devil Wotan married his beloved Freya on the peak of the Brocken.

To keep away “evil spirits”, people would make loud noises, light huge bonfires and burn straw men and old belongings for good luck on April 30, many of these traditions are still done today.

Modern-day celebrations of Walpurgisnacht in Germany  includes dressing up in costumes, hanging blessed sprigs of foliage from houses and leaving offerings of Ankenschnitt (bread with butter and honey) for phantom hounds.

There is also plenty of beer and traditional German food its become a sort of second Halloween.

Local variants of Walpurgis Night are observed throughout Northern and Central Europe in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, and Estonia. In Finland, Denmark and Norway, the tradition with bonfires to ward off the witches is observed as Saint John's Eve, which commemorates the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.

In Finland Walpurgis Night and May Day are effectively merged into a single celebration that is usually referred to as Vappu and that is among the country’s most important holidays. Initially, Walpurgis Night was celebrated by the Finnish upper class. Then, in the late 19th century, students (most notably engineering students) took up its celebration. Today merrymaking begins on the evening of April 30, often augmented with the drinking of alcoholic beverages, particularly sparkling wine. The carnival-like festivities carry over to the next day, frequently taking on a family dimension, as friends and relatives picnic in parks among balloons and consume sima, a homemade low-alcohol (and sometimes not so alcohol)mead

In Finland the celebration begins in the afternoon and in Helsinki it officially starts with the capping of the Havis Amanda statue at the Market Square (similar ceremonies take place in other cities as well). People toast with champagne and wish each other ‘Glada Vappen’ (Finland Swedish) or Hauskaa Vappua (Finnish).
The celebration goes on all night and continues until the morning of May 1st where the parks are filled with people having champagne picnics. During the day the city is filled with flowers, balloons, whistles and parades and other events are held around town.  Walpurgis, Valborg (short for Valborgsmässoafton), or the last of April is a traditional spring celebration in Sweden. For students, it's a foretaste of summer. At dusk, bonfires are lit and people gather to listen to speeches and songs welcoming spring and a brighter future.

 

Had this scheduled to post last night, not sure why it didn't but anyway Happy Beltane /May Day