# 30th April - Walpurgis Night



## Aurin

Do you have Walpurgis Night in your country and how do you celebrate it?
Similar to Halloween it has its roots in pagan customs. More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night


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## trail

I've never heard of it and we don't celebrate it here (in the UK) but it sounds interesting.


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## alexacohen

Aurin:
I can't speak for all of Spain, but in the community I am at the moment, there are two different festivities that can be related both to Halloween and Walpurgis Night.
Halloween is called Samhain,and children go around disguised as witches, demons, muskeeters or whatever they choose asking neighbours for treats. This would be around 1st November.
Then there is the saint John's Day festivity (around 21-25 June). It may bear the name of a saint, but in reality it's the Spring Celebration.
People make big bonfires at twilight that are kept burning till midnight.
When these bonfires are just hot coals the men are suppossed to jump over them, if they jump properly without disturbing the ashes, they'll be lucky.
(They'll be lucky if they don't get burnt, as well).
The women collect flower petals and keep them to wash their faces, as flower petals collected this night are thought to bring beauty...
(no one believes it, but it's fun)
I don't think this is much a Christian festivity at all, but possibly a much older one.
Alexa


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## Venezuelan_sweetie

Aurin said:


> Do you have Walpurgis Night in your country and how do you celebrate it?


No, we don't have it.  But, if we have halloween already, I wouldn't be too surprised if people started celebrating Walpurgis Night here, too...


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## JamesM

Aurin said:


> Do you have Walpurgis Night in your country and how do you celebrate it?
> Similar to Halloween it has its roots in pagan customs. More information:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night


 
I have only the word in German and I had no idea what it was.    I don't know of anyone in the U.S. that celebrates Walpurgisnacht, but it's a big country; I'm sure someone somewhere does.


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## Frank06

Hi,


Aurin said:


> Do you have Walpurgis Night in your country and how do you celebrate it? Similar to Halloween it has its roots in pagan customs. More information:
> [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night[/URL]


Belgium: 
The local national organisation of shopkeepers e.a. hasn't discovered yet that they can also commercially exploit this feast, like they did with Halloween a few years ago.
So, not in Belgium (not yet...)

Groetjes,

Frank


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## jonquiliser

In Finland it is, yes; it's called vappuaatto in Finnish and valborgsmässoafton in Swedish, it's a celebration particularly among (past and present) students and Spring, whereas the 1st of May is Labour day. There are certain foods and other traditions associated with the celebration, but as with so many others, the most typical fluid to ingest is alcohol.


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## tvdxer

It seems to be a Scandinavian thing.  

But despite living in what may be one of the most Scandinavian places outside of Northern Europe, I've never heard of this celebration.


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## LouisaB

Hi, everyone,

I'm afraid this does exist in the UK as the big night of the year for Satanists. I've no idea how many there are, or how widespread the festivities, but I suspect it's really only a tiny number. 

However, in rural Cumbria the police go on full alert that night to protect livestock, as every year a small number of sheep and goats are stolen and butchered (as sacrifices, apparently) and horses can be found in the fields with knife slashes down their flanks (so their blood can be drunk in the service). Nice.

Louisa


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## palomnik

The only notice I've ever heard of it in the USA is among Swedish immigrants in Minnesota and thereabouts.  It's probably died out up there too.


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## Etcetera

Venezuelan_sweetie said:


> No, we don't have it.  But, if we have halloween already, I wouldn't be too surprised if people started celebrating Walpurgis Night here, too...


Here's one more feature our countries have in common, Kathy.
We don't celebrate Walpurgis Night in Russia, and, although the holiday itself is well-known here, I doubt if many people know its exact date.


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## Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

We do have it here, it's called _pálení čarodějnic_ (witch burning) or _filipojakubská noc_ ([St.] Philip-Jacob night). Apparently there are bonfires or fireworks or something like that, but I've never actually been to one, so I can't say for sure.

It's actually kind of weird. It used to be a nearly forgotten old custom, but it's gained popularity in the last ten years (or thereabouts), even though it's neither an official holiday nor a commercial one (i.e. imported by multinational companies like Valentine's Day and most recently even Halloween).


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## sinclair001

By A.D. 43, Romans headed by Julius Caesar conquered the majority of Celtic territory. During the four centuries that they ruled the Celtic lands, two holidays of Roman origin were fused with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first holiday was *Feralia*, a day in late October when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead. The second holiday was a day to commemorate *Pomona*, the Roman goddess of trees and fruits. The the apple is the symbol of Pomona and the merger of this celebration into Samhain explains somehow the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 8th century, Christianism had widespread into Celtic lands. Before this in the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a festivity to honor martyrs and saints. It is believed that Pope Boniface was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a church-sanctioned festivity. 
The resulting celebration we know as All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Alholowmesse = All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be known *All-Hallows Eve* and the related word, *Halloween.*
*SUMMA SUMMARUM: Walpurgis night sourced from merger of celtic Samhain with roman festivities and christian church-approved festivities*


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## Sock

In Estonia we also celebrate the Walpurgis Night (Volbriöö in estonian)! It´s a quite popular tradition and some even dress up as a which or a zombie for the night and go on the town to have some drinks.


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## faranji

In Spain they had _La Noche de Walpurgis_, one of the worst best quirkiest horror movies ever, which was produced, directed, written, and starred by the ineffable Paul Naschy.


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## alexacohen

sinclair001 said:


> *SUMMA SUMMARUM: Walpurgis night sourced from merger of celtic Samhain with roman festivities and christian church-approved festivities*


We still celebrate the Samhain (Galicia, Spain)... but yes, contaminated with Christian festivities - in a way.
When I first came to live here, everybody told me I had to eat "the bones of the saint", which to my horrified Jewish mentality sounded like a sort of cannibalistic necrophilic ritual.
I imagined people going into the Roman Catholic cemeteries and unearthing the bones of good people long dead, and then cooking the bones in big iron pans over a fire (Macbeth very much on my mind).
It turned out the "bones of the saint" are sweets made of marzipan, and modelled as if they were real bones.
I have never been able to eat one. I can't help looking at them with distrust...
Alexa


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## Qcumber

alexacohen said:


> We still celebrate the Samhain (Galicia, Spain)... but yes, contaminated with Christian festivities - in a way.


What is the Spanish name for Samhain?


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## Aurin

Qcumber said:


> What is the Spanish name for Samhain?


It seems that there is no translation.
Look here


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## Qcumber

Aurin said:


> It seems that there is no translation.
> Look here


Apparently the Gallicians have their own term: *samain*.
"Los celtas creían que en esa noche la ventana que separaba el mundo de los vivos y el de los muertos desaparecía y que la víspera de *Samain* – que así llamaban a esa fecha- las almas de los muertos regresaban a visitar hogares terrenales."
Thanks a lot for the link.


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## alexacohen

Qcumber said:


> What is the Spanish name for Samhain?


It is Samhain, or Samain, both names are used.
Alexa


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## loladamore

I think the Celtic equivalent is *Beltane*. All that's left of it in most of England is prancing round a maypole, but Beltane is celebrated with bonfires in Scotland, for example, *in Edinburgh*. 
I've just found a good article *here*. It's all about sex apparently.


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## Aurin

loladamore said:


> I think the Celtic equivalent is *Beltane*. All that's left of it in most of England is prancing round a maypole, but Beltane is celebrated with bonfires in Scotland, for example, *in Edinburgh*.
> I've just found a good article *here*. It's all about sex apparently.


 
Very interesting links.
I think your right. I found this.


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## LouisaB

loladamore said:


> I think the Celtic equivalent is *Beltane*. All that's left of it in most of England is prancing round a maypole, but Beltane is celebrated with bonfires in Scotland, for example, *in Edinburgh*.
> I've just found a good article *here*. It's all about sex apparently.


 
All that's left of it in England - _officially...._

This is a BBC site, so it's suitable for children. The reality of what 'covens' (ie witches) get up to in certain areas would not be appropriate to print.

Louisa


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## zephyr

LouisaB said:


> All that's left of it in England - _officially...._
> 
> This is a BBC site, so it's suitable for children. The reality of what 'covens' (ie witches) get up to in certain areas would not be appropriate to print.
> 
> Louisa


Really? That sounds kind of scary.

I don't think I've ever even heard of this day before. I would guess that most English people (at least in urban areas) haven't either.


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## LouisaB

zephyr said:


> Really? That sounds kind of scary.
> 
> I don't think I've ever even heard of this day before. I would guess that most English people (at least in urban areas) haven't either.


 
I'd agree with you, zephyr - and honestly, I suspect it's only a very small number of people who participate in such things. I'd never heard of it myself (or not, at least, outside the pages of Dennis Wheatley) until about eight years ago when I first came across the stuff I was talking about in my earlier post. My family lived in the Lake District, and the field at the bottom of our house had a beautiful white horse in it. The morning after Walpurgisnacht, our neighbour was horrifed to find three long parallel gashes down its side, which looked as if it had been clawed by something with a huge hand. The policeman, however, said it would just be 'weirdos' celebrating Walpurgisnacht, and explained their habit of taking blood from certain animals for use in the rituals. After that, our neighbour took his advice and kept his horse nearer his house on that night of the year.

I've _heard_ of other incidents, and a friend in Yorkshire says people in his village keep an eye on their livestock for that night too, but that single episode is the only time I've had any actual experience of it. Also, from what the policeman said, it's not necessarily a genuine old rural tradition: in his opinion it was sensation-seekers coming up from the big towns. Apparently there was a lot of it in the Sixties - but again, I'm not speaking from first-hand knowledge there.

Does anything like this happen in other countries?

Louisa


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## Venezuelan_sweetie

LouisaB said:


> Does anything like this happen in other countries?


Yes, many creepy things like that one do happen in my country (and much creepier things, as well), but bearing no relation to Walpurgis Night. Santa Barbara's day is really something down here, and finding a horse with a couple of gashes is nothing, compared to what one gets to see and hear of around that night.

Animal sacrifices are pretty common around here, but if I were to extend on the matter, I guess we'd have to start a new thread...


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