Walpurgis night, the pagan celebration of May 1

 It's May 1st, 2022, and an old tradition can take place again after two years of cancellation due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In several locations throughout Germany, on April 30 people go up to the highest point in the area to light bonfires and drink and celebrate. It's a way of scaring away the last evil spirits of winter and welcome the brightness and promise of spring. Even in southern Germany, where the climate is warmer than equivalent latitudes in North America, night frosts can still happen into mid May.  

Witches and devils on Walpurgisnacht (photo from nordbayern.de)

In the Harz Mountains, just about every place is eerily decorated. In the town of Schierke, medieval bands and jugglers perform on various stages set up for the event, and stalls are set up for selling arts and crafts. Other attractions include a chance to try archery, a medieval campsite, a Viking camp, taverns, fireworks and an after-party show. According to pagan myths, a "devil" named Wotan married his love Freya on the night of April 30th at the highest peak in the Harz mountains, called the Brocken, which is near Schierke. The Brocken is mist-shrouded and cloud-wrapped 300 days of the year, so it is easily associated with eerie things.

In the town of Wernigerode, Walpurgis night is celebrated in the central square and at the castle, and witches storm the town hall.

Castle Wernigerode

The ancient (Celtic) tradition of Beltane began on the night of April 30, lasting until the morning hours of May 1. It involved building bonfires and jumping over or walking between them. As a spring fertility festival, it used to involve lovers coupling in the fields to encourage a plentiful harvest. 

The name Walpurgis is taken from St. Walburga, because her canonization occurred on the first of May. She is credited with converting the local Saxon pagans to Christianity and was invoked for protection against witchcraft. According to local folklore, she permitted witches their own festival one day of the year in exchange for their conversion to Christianity. The festival is associated with the end of winter and the beginning of spring. When this occurs, the separation between this world and the netherworld is thinnest, and the nearness allows the devils and witches to pass between the worlds. The legend of flying witches can be traced back to a herbal ointment that had an intoxicating effect on the women who used it. When they rubbed it in, they had the feeling of flying. In the middle ages, the preparation of the ointment was associated with witchcraft, which led to the legend of witches and devils.

The poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Germany's Shakespeare) made the myths famous by incorporating them into his play "Faust", the story of the man who sold his soul to the devil.

from Praetorius' Blockes-Berges Verrichtung

Goethe was not the only one who was inspired by Walpurgis night. Johannes Praetorius, a writer who lived from 1630 to 1680 and compiled literary works, including fairy tales and legends, wrote Blockes Berges Verrichtung (Blockula Performance), in 1668. He covered all the facets that he could gather on the belief in witches of the 17th century. He brought together skepticism and even contempt for various forms of witchcraft, but not against the belief in witchcraft.

Falero's Walpurgisnacht: Witches on their Sabbath

Luis Ricardo Falero, a Spanish painter who lived from 1851 until 1896 and specialized in mythological, orientalist and fantasy settings, painted "Walpurgisnacht: Witches on their Sabbath".

Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestra piece, Night on Bald Mountain, published in 1886,  gained wide exposure through the Walt Disney animated film Fantasia in 1940. The theme is the Witches' Sabbath on Walpurgis night. 

The rising popularity of such festivals with ancient roots is another example of the increasing attraction and relevance of the pagan traditions in Germany. Such occasions are used as an excuse for a festival and to bring business to remote, economically disadvantaged regions. In spite of the peripheral commercial aspects, they become a primal communal experience as a spell settles over the audience during the performances. We described this in our blog entry about the Perchtentreiben performance we saw during Advent 2013. The communal response to the representation of natural forces is proving more attractive than the experiences organized religion offers.  In Germany, "solidarity", or social cohesion, is still strongly encouraged  through the centuries-old common traditions, among which are the beer gardens and the schools that teach the ability to function politely in a densely populated society. The number of Germans officially enrolled as members of the Roman Catholic,  Lutheran or orthodox churches has dropped below 50% of the total population. It is significant that these old pagan traditions that in past centuries served the same purpose of reinforcing community are enjoying more interest than the ritual offerings of church institutions, whose antiquated moral restrictions and theology of suffering are perceived as increasingly irrelevant. 

Twelve Days of Christmas

Germany is fairly quiet during the twelve days of Christmas. That is probably true in most places. In Germany, during the dark days between the years, it is better to stay home. An article on the Bavarian Radio website says that this is good advice not only because of the Corona virus, but also because some people fear the Rauhnächte (hairy nights) between the years from the 25th of December until the 6th of January. What follows is my translation of the article at

https://www.br.de/nachrichten/kultur/mythos-rauhnaechte-duestere-zeit-zwischen-den-jahren,Sst9rlI

According to old folk tales, after Christmas begins the time when it seems advisable to stay home and let certain kinds of work wait. That includes washing clothes. The reason is that clothes left on the line to dry could snare evil spirits who carry out their evil deeds in the night-time. 

The Germanic god Wotan was demonized

People wearing Perchten costumes

In the upper-Bavarian town of Kirchseeon, people wear Perchten costumes. The Perchten are sometimes good and sometimes evil creatures that the members of the Perchten Society traditionally turn themselves into.  They dress up in hairy pelts that represent the name Rauhnächte literally. The word "Rauh" comes from the middle-high German word for "hairy" and the word "nächte" means "nights".  The ghostly beginnings of the Rauhnächte reach back to pre-Christian times, long before Christmas and the Three Kings were thought of. In those times, the Germanic god Wotan presumably  traveled through the skies with a wild army during the last nights of December. During Christian times this belief acquired a demonic mystique.

Christianity competed with heathen customs

 At the same time, the Celts also noticed that the lunar year had 354 days but the solar year had 365. They inserted eleven leap days (twelve leap nights) during which the doors to another world stood open, according to their beliefs. The myths of these twelve nights were easily overtaken by Christianity, because the Church had already moved its high feast from the end of December to the beginning of January in reaction to the pagan cult festivals. First, the Roman emperor moved the beginning of the year from the first of March to the first of January, and then the pope decided that Christmas would be celebrated on December 25th in answer to the Roman sun-god cult.

The myth is continued creatively in Nuremberg

When the Church set the epiphany of the three kings on January 6th, the heathen Rauhnächte suddenly had two Christian festivals to bound the time, that is, the twelve days of Christmas, with the beginning of the year in the middle. The Synod of Tours in the year 567 designated the twelve days between Christmas and the epiphany the time "between the years". They have been called the Twelve Days of Christmas ever since.

Rauhnächte got a double meaning through a play on words where "Rauh" is interpreted as "Rauch", which means "smoke", and "Weihrauch" is the incense smoke that according to tradition was spread throughout the house to keep the evil spirits at bay during the Christmas season. Nuremberg has started its own Rauhnächte festival, similar to the one in Kirchseeon, in order to conjure up the good spirits of the new year with light-art displays in the old town.

 Nürnberg bietet dafür heuer ein eigenes Rauhnächte-Festival