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Walpurgis Night

  
 
The Photographer in Blowup
20:27 / 10.01.03
What exactly is the Walpurgis Night, when is it, and what's the story behind it?

Apart that it's one of those bad-luck days, like friday 13th, i don't know much else.

I'm counting on your experience, people.
 
 
LDones
21:21 / 10.01.03
Walpurgisnacht is April 30, if I'm not mistaken, and for Satanists it's like a mini-solstice for 'sinister' energy. It's also 'Cross Quarter Day', falling just between the Vernal Equinox and MidSummer Solstice. It's also known as 'May Eve', a lead-in to May Day celebrations, and 'Beltane' for many Wiccans.

My experience with/understanding of Walpurgisnacht comes primarily from research and practice into the Church of Satan, where it's the 'biggest' holiday of the year. There appears to be a lot of blending with Walpurgisnacht (Night of the Witches, although it isn't really a translation) traditions seeping into the popular conception and practice of Halloween. In ye olde days, Germans would start big fires to drive away witches and the devil on that evening.

Here's a quick excerpt from a random page:

In the Harz mountains the night of the witches, the Walpurgisnacht, is a big event. In popular Christian beliefs, the Walpurgis night belongs to the witches and women who can perform magic. It falls on the eve of May 1, the feast day of St. Walpurga. She came to Germany from England in the 8th century to spread the Christian word and performed many miracles. According to popular beliefs, St. Walpurga is pursued by mean spirits, demons and witches riding on brooms in the Walpurgis night. Anyone who helps her shall be rewarded with gold, the tale goes. In the Harz mountains the Walpurgis night is always a happy festival. Witches with pointed noses and hats, with twig brooms between their legs and wearing a colorful scarf around their necks hang in the streets. In the Harz villages, especially those near the Brocken, people have a good time celebrating. (FOCUS, "the Harz", 12, 94, p. 5)
 
 
The Monkey
21:34 / 10.01.03
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

Walpurgis Night

SYLLABICATION: Wal·pur·gis Night
PRONUNCIATION: väl-prgs
NOUN: 1a. The eve of May Day, observed in some European countries and in some Scandinavian communities in the United States in celebration of spring and marked by music, singing, and bonfires. b. The eve of Beltane, believed by medieval Christians to be the occasion of a witches' Sabbath. 2. An episode or a situation having the quality of nightmarish wildness.
ETYMOLOGY: Partial translation of German Walpurgisnacht : Walpurgis, Saint Walpurga (died 779) + Nacht, night.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

Walpurgis Night

SYLLABICATION: Wal·pur·gis Night
PRONUNCIATION: väl-prgs
NOUN: 1a. The eve of May Day, observed in some European countries and in some Scandinavian communities in the United States in celebration of spring and marked by music, singing, and bonfires. b. The eve of Beltane, believed by medieval Christians to be the occasion of a witches' Sabbath. 2. An episode or a situation having the quality of nightmarish wildness.
ETYMOLOGY: Partial translation of German Walpurgisnacht : Walpurgis, Saint Walpurga (died 779) + Nacht, night.

One part Christian saint's Day, one part witch's sabbath -- although both versions come from Scandanavian-Germanic sources. and both are seen as heralding spring (although Christians hold that the witches were performing rituals to hold back the coming of spring). To many minds, though, the image of Walpurgis Night is established by Goethe's version in the second part of Faust: a roiling, lewd get-together of supernatural beings on top of a mountain. [Sort of like that bit in "Fantasia" set to "Night on Bald Mountain"...in fact, wasn't Modest Mussorysgy doing a programmatic piece based on that seen in Faust?]

In addition to the bonfires and community aspect, there seems to be a tradition of pranking and general misbehavior on Walpurgisnacht (that Goethe was riffing off of). A rather casual source in Germany says that idiot pranks are standard on the eve of May Day (sometimes called Freinacht, instead) while the other aspects of the holiday have diminished.
 
  
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