Walpurgis Night

(esp. in medieval German folklore) the evening preceding the feast day of St. Walpurgis, when witches congregated, esp. on the Brocken. German, Walpurgisnacht /vahl poordd"gis nahkht'/.

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Night before May 1.

The name comes from the 8th-century St. Walburga (or Walpurgis), an English missionary who ran an important early convent in Germany, May 1 being one of her feast days. In Sweden it is celebrated with bonfires as the beginning of spring. In Germany, as Walpurgisnacht, it was the night witches were supposed to meet in the Harz Mountains (see Brocken), though the association of witches with St. Walburga is only coincidental. See also Beltane.

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▪ holiday

      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. Celebrations in Finland include a carnival and the drinking of alcoholic beverages, particularly sima, a type of mead. 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.

      The origins of the holiday date back to pagan celebrations of fertility rights and the coming of spring. After the Norse were Christianized, the pagan celebration became combined with the legend of St. Walburga (Walburga, Saint), 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. After her death she was canonized as a saint on May 1. 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.

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