Walpurgisnacht, The Witches Night

Wishing you a weird Walpurgisnacht and a spicy Beltane

Walpurgisnacht is coming! The Witches Night is a German festival celebrated on April 30^th and is still quite the thing in Northern Europe and Germany. Walpurgisnacht, also called Hexennacht comes from St. Walpurga, an abbess from England who was sent to Germany in the 8^th century to convert the heathen Saxons. She is credited for her work battling illness, pests, and witchcraft. After her canonization in 870, Christians celebrated her by making pilgrimages to her tomb as well as banging pots and pans and hanging greenery in their homes to ward off evil spirits. Walpurgisnacht is known to be when the witches gathered on Mt. Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountains, and danced around the bonfire, conducting wild rituals, and consorting with Satan. Walpurgisnacht is now a time for fire jumping, dancing, fireworks, and folksongs. In Germany, it is a second Halloween in some regions with folks dressing up in costume and playing pranks. Walpurgisnacht has ties to Beltane and other May Day festivities through folklore surrounding the Goddess Holda, a goddess of spinning and fertility who flew around on her spindle and later a broomstick, overseeing other female deities linked with health and fertility. This is where the witches on broomsticks thing came from. Holda is a winter goddess linked to Midwinter and Yule and on May Day, she marries the God Belenus. This ties into the Celtic festivities of Beltane. Pre-Christian pagans and Christian saints have a way of intertwining, allowing the festivals and practices of pre-Christian Europe to continue in a Christianized world. Anyway, back to Walpurgisnacht.