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Walpurgis Night

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• Ancient Origins - Walpurgis Night: A Saint, Witches, and Pagan Beliefs in a Springtime Halloween for Scandinavia
• LiveAbout - Walpurgis Night - The Other Halloween
• Online Library of Liberty - The First Walpurgis Night

While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

• Ancient Origins - Walpurgis Night: A Saint, Witches, and Pagan Beliefs in a Springtime Halloween for Scandinavia
• LiveAbout - Walpurgis Night - The Other Halloween
• Online Library of Liberty - The First Walpurgis Night

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Walpurgis Night, a traditional holiday celebrated on April 30 in northern Europe and Scandinavia. In Sweden typical holiday activities include the singing of traditional spring folk songs and the lighting of bonfires. In Germany the holiday is celebrated by dressing in costumes, playing pranks on people, and creating loud noises meant to keep evil at bay. Many people also hang blessed sprigs of foliage from houses and barns to ward off evil spirits, or they leave pieces of bread spread with butter and honey, called ankenschnitt, as offerings for phantom hounds.

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 low-alcohol) mead.

The origins of the holiday date back to pagan celebrations of fertility rites and the coming of spring. After the Norse were Christianized, the pagan celebration became combined with the legend of St. Walburga, an English-born nun who lived at Heidenheim monastery in Germany and later became the abbess there. Walburga was believed to have cured the illnesses of many local residents. Walburga is traditionally associated with May 1 because of a medieval account of her being canonized upon the translation of her remains from their place of burial to a church circa 870. Although it is likely that the date of her canonization is purely coincidental to the date of the pagan celebrations of spring, people were able to celebrate both events under church law without fear of reprisal.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.

April 30 pagan holiday

The festival of Walpurgis, a night both of revelry and darkness. The nine nights of April 22 (interestingly enough, the modern festival of Earth Day) to April 30 are venerated as rememberance of the AllFather's self-sacrifice upon the World Tree Yggdrasil. It was on the ninth night (April 30, Walpurgisnacht) that he beheld the Runes, grasped them, and ritually died for an instant. At that moment, all the Light in the 9 worlds is extinguished, and utter Chaos reigns. At the final stroke of midnight, the Light returns in dazzling brilliance, and the bale-fires are lit. On Walpurgisnacht, the dead have full sway upon the earth; it is the ending night of the Wild Hunt.

Walpurgisnacht – April 30, the night before – is celebrated as the time Odin had hung on the World Tree for nine days and gained the wisdom of the Runes. May Day itself is associated with Frey – the great Maypole his phallus – and Freya as Goddess of Love. This is a day of merrymaking and the celebration of love, and Lofn and Sjofn, both minor love goddesses, may be honored. Var may be honored if people intend to take oaths on the Maypole. The Alfar, or Elves, are associated with this day, as is Mani the Moon God who sees what people do in the bushes after dark, and Jormundgand the great serpent of the ocean.

​Waluburgis Night (Valborgsmassoafton in Swedish, Vappu in Finnish, Walpurgisnachtin German) is a holiday celebrated on April 30, in Finland, Sweden and Germany.

It is named after a woman called “Valborg” (alternative spellings are “Walpurgis”, “Wealdburg”, or “Valderburger”) born in 710 somewhere in Dorset / Wessex as a niece of Saint Boniface. Together with her brothers she later travelled to Württemberg, Germany where she became a nun and lived in the convent of Heidenheim, which was founded by her brother Wunibald. Valborg died on February 25, 779 and that day still carries her name in the Catholic calendar. However she wasn’t made a saint until May 1 in the same year, and that day carries her name in the Swedish calendar.

Viking fertility celebrations took place around April 30 and due to Valborg being declared a saint at that time of year, her name became associated with the celebrations. Valborg was worshipped in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread through out Europe the two dates became mixed together and created the Valborg celebration.

Waluburgis is one of the main holidays during the year in both Sweden and Finland, alongside of Yule and Midsummer. One of the main traditions is to light large bonfires, and for the younger people to collect greens and branches from the woods at twilight, which were used to adorn the houses of the village. The expected reward for this task to be paid in eggs.

The tradition which is most spread throughout the country is probably singing songs of spring. The strongest and most traditional spring festivities take up most of the day from early morning to late night on April 30.

Historically the Walpurgisnacht is derived from heathen spring customs, where the arrival of spring was celebrated with bonfires at night. With the Christianization of Germany these old customs were condemned as heathen.

No true Germanic Heathen name survives for May Eve; the German Walpurgisnacht is derived from the well-documented Christian St. Walpurga. In order to avoid confusion, and because no better name survives, Many Germanic heathens have replaced ‘Walpurga’ with the name of the second-century Germanic seeress ‘Waluburg’. This festival marks the beginning of summer in Scandinavia. In all the Germanic countries, it is seen as a time when witches are particularly active, a belief memorialized in Goethe’s description of the witch-moot on the Brocken (Faust, Act I) and Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain”. It is also the Germanic equivalent of Valentine’s Day and a night of love: young men are expected to go out into the woods to gather green branches and wildflowers with which they decorate the windows of their beloveds. For both these reasons, Heathens consider Freya to be the ruler of this festival, as she is mistress of both witchcraft and love. The traditional ‘Maypole’ or ‘May Tree’ is also a part of the celebration of this feast; in Scandinavia, the ‘May Tree’ is carried about in processions, a practice which probably goes back to the Vanic fruitfulness-procession of earliest Heathen times. Fires were kindled on grave mounds or other high places on this night; it is traditional for folk to leap through the flames for luck. A fire kindled by friction (the ‘need-fire’) might also be used to protect cattle against illness or cure them.

Walpurgis Night –

The Mass of St. Walpurga or Walpurgis Night is observed on April 30 in parts of Northern and Eastern Europe, from Sweden to the Czech Republic. It is known as ‘Walpurgisnacht’ in German-speaking nations, ‘Valborg’ in Sweden, and ‘Čarodejnice’ in the Czech Republic. Walpurgis Night is also known as “the other Halloween.” For example, on April 30, a traditional Walpurgis Night ritual involves the burning of an effigy of a witch on a campfire. In Sweden, this is bonfire night, once thought to ward off evil spirits but is now a fun way to get rid of excess gardening trash.

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History of Walpurgis Night

The holiday’s origins may be traced to pagan fertility ceremonies and the arrival of spring. The pagan feast was blended with the tale of St. Walpurga, an English-born nun who resided at Heidenheim Abbey in Germany and subsequently became its abbess when the Norse were Christianized. Many locals felt Walburga had cured them of their ailments. St. Walpurga is tied with May 1 because of a medieval tale of her being canonized after her bones were transferred from their burial site to a church about the year 870.

April 30 marks the midway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. The date has a significant link to Beltane, a Celtic festival celebrated on the final day of winter and the beginning of summer.

People in the Harz Mountains of central Germany thought that witches rode through the sky on April 30, naming it Witches Night (Hexennacht), and maintained a coven atop Brocken Mountain, according to Germanic tradition. The townspeople would burn bonfires to terrify the witches and fend off any evil spirits, as witches didn’t enjoy a smoke. Because witches were said to dislike noise, they would also ring church bells and bash pots and pans. They would also pray to St. Walpurga (just in case) whose feast day falls on April 30.

St. Walpurga brought Christianity to the region in the ninth century. She is the patron saint of those suffering from dog bites, rabies, and whooping cough. Her intercession is invoked for protection against sorcery.

If chasing away witches on Walpurgis Night wasn’t thrilling enough, it was also the conclusion of the Middle Ages’ administrative year, which would have been a good enough reason to relax with a flagon of artisan-crafted mead and to toast something nice near a campfire.

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