In the nine days preceding Saint Walpurga’s feast day, church bells were rung to drive witches away. Tradition holds that the banished witches would gather on a peak called Blocksberg in the Hartz mountains to hold a large feast. As the celebrations spread throughout Europe and up into the Nordic lands, regional differences were introduced or syncretised from other traditions.

Properties were protected with whip-cracking, laid-out brooms, and maypoles, which were also fertility symbols. The maypoles were danced around, and young people did what young people do. Many also lit bonfires, which would protect from black magic, whopping cough, and rabies – diseases that Walpurga had in her saintly remit to protect petitioners from. In some towns, children would play practical jokes on the population. Many lit bonfires and at or around midnight would sing and dance. Some put wooden images of witches, made for this purpose, to burn in the fires to “celebrate” the witch hunts that occurred in these places. Some would dress up in carnival and dance witch dances. In Switzerland, despite Calvin’s 150-year ban on music and dancing, young people would secretly celebrate these rites, helping them survive into modern times. In the Rhineland, a lover would plant a maypole before the house of the object of their affection, which would be decorated with crepe paper.

Walpurgis Night has been featured in art and literature throughout the ages. Goethe mentions Walpurgis Night in his work “Faust,” Bram Stoker‘s short story, “Dracula’s Guest,” and HP Lovecraft in “Dreams in the Witch House.” Walpurgis Night inspired many artists to depict the activities on the Blocksberg through recent centuries. Metal music lyrics have also featured this festival, for example, the song “The Blocksberg Rite” by the German band The Vision Bleak.

More recently, in German-speaking lands, the adventures of a young witch, Bibi Blocksberg, appeared in audio drama format in 1980 and has entertained many children since. And who knows, maybe this teenage witch has inspired some to take up magic in later life. Along with the general tendency over the last 100 years to re-enchant the world and revalidate the belief and use of magic.

In Sweden and Finland, the biggest student parties take place, and bonfires feature, as they do in Germany, alongside copious amounts of consciousness-altering substances being consumed.

Today, in Germany, Walpurgis Night is better known as “Tanz in den Mai,” which means “Dance in May” in English. Most towns and villages have all-night parties where revellers dance until dawn. Whether they are thinking of Saint Walpurga or witches is unknown, but the festival is still celebrated with enthusiasm.

So, we have gone from a saint’s feast day that started in the Middle Ages, which protected the devotees from baneful witchcraft to an early modern celebration of the persecution of witches. More recently, it has morphed into a really good excuse for a party. The most recent change has been the festival being used as of re-appropriating the terms witch and witchcraft which is an integral part of the contemporary pagan scene. Starting in Europe and spreading to all corners of the globe, Walpurgisnacht is being celebrated alongside Beltaine in practitioner rites dedicated to the welcoming of spring for another year.

REFERENCES:

Matthias Böning 1er Mai Walpugisnacht Academia.edu

Leo Ruickbie Die Hexen sind unter uns Forum Gelb 2006