It’s become a personal tradition for me to repurpose old Halloween decorations for Walpurgis Night each year. This year, it’s another great Beistle design that gets the treatment. I especially like the happy cat and the fact that the witch is petting her.
I hope you have a wonderful Walpurgis Night tonight!
Well, I’m a couple of days late on this one, but it’s worth noting for next year if you’re in the southern California area. It looks like a lot of fun for those of us who want to spread Halloween cheer all year long, and this year it even coincided with Witches’ Night (AKA Walpurgis Night).
According to its web site, the Heritage Square Museum “is a living history museum that explores the settlement and development of Southern California from the Civil War to the early 20th Century, offering visitors a look into the everyday lives of Southern Californians at the close of the 19th Century.” It’s a small neighborhood of homes set up to look the way they would have appeared when they were new, complete with all the accoutrements.
The folks who run the Midsummer Scream haunter’s convention realized that this wonderful vintage neighborhood would be the perfect place to trick or treat, so the Halloween event Cemetery Lane was born. The Spooky Swap Meet is more of a festival atmosphere, with curated vendors of all things spooky.
Learn more at https://spookyswapmeet.com/.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard Halloween fanatics moaning about how much they wish there was a second Halloween every year. Some even try to shoehorn Halloween into other holidays, like Valentine’s day, to end up with odd hybrid holidays like Valoween. While I’m all for more gothy goodness every year, I can’t figure out why people don’t take advantage of the second Halloween we already have - Walpurgis Night!
This year, Walpurgis Night falls on Saturday, April 30th. While many in the US have never heard of Walpurgis Night, I like to celebrate it every year. I’ve even re-colored some of my favorite Halloween decorations with my own Walpurgis Night palette of yellow, purple, and blue to better reflect the energy of spring.
Some might claim that spring isn’t a spooky time of year, but many Europeans would beg to differ. According to Wikipedia, “medieval and Renaissance tradition held that, during Walpurgis Night, witches celebrated a sabbath and evil powers were at their strongest. In German folklore, Walpurgis Night was believed to be the night of a witches' meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany. To ward off evil and protect themselves and their livestock, people would traditionally light fires on the hillsides, a tradition that continues in some regions today. In Bavaria, the feast day is sometimes called Hexennacht, literally "Witches' Night", on which revelers dress as witches and demons, set off fireworks, dance and play loud music, which is said to drive the witches and winter spirits away.”
Maybe the holiday would catch on more in the US if we just called it Witches’ Night. At least that would attract the Harry Potter crowd. Just don’t tell them that the objective is to keep witches and evil spirits away. Shhhh.
I love old Beistle Halloween decorations, so I’ve repurposed this one for Walpurgis Night - the springtime Halloween. We really need to get more people on board with celebrating Walpurgis Night worldwide. The Scandinavians do it up right!
Due to the pandemic, it looks like most of the big European celebrations are off again this year. The city of Lund in Sweden is even dumping a literal ton of chicken excrement into their park to dissuade revelers tonight! So, no bonfires will be lit, but that won’t stop anyone from celebrating in smaller ways at home.
Light up that fire pit and get your Walpurgis Night celebration cranked up in your own backyard!
I believe the image above came from naturally.jo on Instagram, but I’m not sure. If it’s yours and you want it taken down, just let me know. In the meantime, I’m holding this up as a prime example of the many ways we can convert Halloween traditions into springtime-friendly, Walpurgis Night fare.
Although I’m not a big fan of watermelon, I love this springtime Jack-o-lantern. If you want a spherical watermelon, some species tend to be more round than others. My best advice it to start looking early. Unfortunately, once cut, this guy probably won’t last long in the heat. That’s one of the advantages to pumpkins in the Autumn months in most places - they’re kept cool on the porch overnight. But that shouldn’t dissuade you from making your own watermelon Jack just for Walpurgis night.
The fruit monsters could even be made without the Jack, but I have to admit that they look like a good bit of culinary skill is involved. Here’s a quick video from naturally jo on YouTube illustrating the makings of some similar pops!
I have to admit that I’m getting tired of my Halloween-loving brethren bemoaning the lack of a springtime Halloween. I’ve seen posts about Valoween (a mashup of Valentine’s day and Halloween) and I’ve even heard some folks crying that we need a springtime Halloween. WE HAVE ONE ALREADY, PEOPLE! Get with the program. It’s called Walpurgis Night and it’s exactly what the doctor ordered - a spring equinox celebration of all things dark and spooky.
You can read about the origins of Walpurgis Night at Wikipedia, but here’s the key bit: “In German folklore, Walpurgis Night was believed to be the night of a witches' meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany. To ward off evil and protect themselves and their livestock, people would traditionally light fires on the hillsides, a tradition that continues in some regions today. In Bavaria, the feast day is sometimes called Hexennacht, literally Witches' Night, on which revelers dress as witches and demons, set off fireworks, dance and play loud music, which is said to drive the witches and winter spirits away.”
Sound familiar? Walpurgis night was originally a Catholic celebration of the feast of Saint Walpurga, a first century saint with no particular connection to the dark side of life. Of course, the May 1st date of this feast was the same date as many pagan spring traditions. The Catholic church often took over existing pagan holidays to woo the masses to the new religion in town. In that regard, Walpurgis Night was the same as Christmas and All Hallows’ Eve.
So, why don’t we celebrate Walpurgis Night every year? I believe it had to do with the Irish potato famine coinciding with the early days of America. Irish and Scottish immigrants were instrumental in bringing their Halloween traditions stateside. There’s a clear link between our modern day celebration of Halloween and the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced SOW-in). It was brought over the ocean by Irish and Scottish immigrants in the early 19th century. Those immigrants were refugees of a disastrous famine that decimated their populations and made them willing to endure anything for a chance at a new life in America. Before that time, All Hallows’ Eve was recognized as a Christian holiday, but not one that was celebrated in any significant way.
So, if Irish and Scottish immigrants brought us Halloween, why didn’t they bring Walpurgis Night too? Because it wasn’t a big celebration in the British isles. If America had seen a huge influx of immigrants from Finland, Sweden, or Germany during that time, we might have a very different calendar with our spookiest holiday celebrated in the spring of each year instead of the autumn. But the Irish and Scottish brought us All Hallows’ Eve and it stuck.
For several years, I’ve been promoting Walpurgis night on social media to no avail. I’ve developed a color palette for the holiday and recolored some of my favorite Halloween decorations (like the brilliant Beistle design up above) for Walpurgis season. As you’ll see, I also added some springtime touches to some of this decor. Look for more of these Walpurgis decoration posts throughout the season.
In the meantime, won’t you join me in this celebration? If we need anything in 2021, it’s something to celebrate! Get some vaccinated friends together on the night of April 30th, build a bonfire, and eat drink and be merry!
