Post by Brad-LaSpirits on Feb 29, 2008 22:31:05 GMT -5
The night of April 30 is the year’s other night of witches, spells
and
magic
There's a penetrating chill in the wind. The bright moon rises behind
the shivering, nearly naked trees. A profound sense of foreboding
permeates the darkness. This is the night, after all, when witches ride
their broomsticks through the sky, and the natural world is forced to
confront the powers of the supernatural.
No, it isn't October 31 and this is not Halloween. It's April 30 and
it's Walpurgis Night.
Like Halloween, Walpurgis has its roots in ancient pagan customs,
superstitions and festivals. At this time of year, the Vikings
participated in a ritual that they hoped would hasten the arrival of
Spring weather and ensure fertility for their crops and livestock. They
would light huge bonfires in hopes of scaring away evil spirits.
But the name “Walpurgis†comes from a very different source. In the
8th Century, a woman named Valborg (other iterations of the name
include
Walpurgis, Wealdburg and Valderburger) founded the Catholic convent of
Heidenheim in Wurtemburg, Germany. She herself later became a nun and
was known for speaking out against witchcraft and sorcery. She was
canonized a saint on May 1, 779. Since the celebration of her sainthood
and the old Viking festival occurred around the same time, over the
years the festivals and traditions intermingled until the hybrid
pagan-Catholic celebration became known as Valborgsmässoafton or
Walpurgisnacht – Walpurgis Night.
The Other Halloween
Although not widely known in the US, this May-Eve night shares many of
the traditions of Halloween and is, in fact, directly opposite
Halloween
on the calendar.
According to the ancient legends, this night was the last chance for
witches and their nefarious cohorts to stir up trouble before Spring
reawakened the land. They were said to congregate on Brocken, the
highest peak in the Harz Mountains – a tradition that comes from
Goethe's Faust. In the story, the demon Mephistopheles brings Faust to
Brocken to consort with the coven of witches:
The witches t'ward the Brocken strain
When the stubble yellow, green the grain.
The rabble rushes - as 'tis meet -
To Sir Urian's lordly seat.
O'er stick and stone we come, by jinks!
The witches f..., the he-goat s...
...
The broomstick carries, so does the stock;
The pitchfork carries, so does the buck;
Who cannot rise on them tonight,
Remains for aye a luckless wight.
To ward off the witches’ evil, the citizenry would burn bonfires,
sprinkle holy water and adorn their homes with talismans of blessed
palm
leaf. One of the best ways to keep evil at bay, they thought, was
through noise. This is an idea that probably dates back to early man.
On
Walpurgis Night, the citizens would ring bells, bang drums, crack whips
and beat blanks of wood onto the ground. As technology advanced, they
would shoot firearms into the air.
Walpurgis Night even features its own version of Trick or Treat in some
parts of Europe, especially Germany. In Bavaria, for example, where the
celebration is known as a Freinacht or Drudennacht, the young might
roam
the neighborhoods pulling mischievous pranks, such as wrapping cars in
toilet paper and smearing doorknobs with toothpaste.
In Thueringen, Germany, some of the little girls dress up as witches,
wearing paper hats and carrying sticks.
In Finland, where the holiday is called Vappu, the ordinarily reserved
Finns run screaming through the streets wearing masks and carrying
drinks.
Halloween-like scarecrows make an appearance, too. Life-size or smaller
strawmen are created and ritually imbued with all the back luck and ill
will of the past year. They are then tossed on the Walpurgis bonfires
along with worn-out, burnable household items.
A Time of Magic
Some believe that Walpurgis, like Halloween, is more than a time of
ritual spellcasting – that it is a time when the barrier between our
world and the “supernatural†is more easily crossed. Winifred Hodge
writes in Waelburga and the Rites of May, “Since this is a
turning-tide when the season is not quite one thing or another – a
‘between-time,’ it is very suitable for occult divination and
spellcraft: a time to take advantage of the thinner veils between the
worlds and the fact that our minds are temporarily focused away from
everyday affairs and onto the magical energies of Nature's spring
tides.
This is a time for looking into that which is coming into being and
which should be, for seeking deep roots of life-knowledge and
life-mysteries, for love-magic and spells of growth and change,
conception and birth – in fact, for almost all the elements of what
is
often called 'women's magic.'"
In his book Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places, Brad
Steiger adds that “Walpurgis Night has traditionally been regarded as
one of the most powerful nights for ghosts, demons, and long-legged
beasties... [It] has an even greater potential for smashing the
barriers
between the seen and unseen worlds.â€
and
magic
There's a penetrating chill in the wind. The bright moon rises behind
the shivering, nearly naked trees. A profound sense of foreboding
permeates the darkness. This is the night, after all, when witches ride
their broomsticks through the sky, and the natural world is forced to
confront the powers of the supernatural.
No, it isn't October 31 and this is not Halloween. It's April 30 and
it's Walpurgis Night.
Like Halloween, Walpurgis has its roots in ancient pagan customs,
superstitions and festivals. At this time of year, the Vikings
participated in a ritual that they hoped would hasten the arrival of
Spring weather and ensure fertility for their crops and livestock. They
would light huge bonfires in hopes of scaring away evil spirits.
But the name “Walpurgis†comes from a very different source. In the
8th Century, a woman named Valborg (other iterations of the name
include
Walpurgis, Wealdburg and Valderburger) founded the Catholic convent of
Heidenheim in Wurtemburg, Germany. She herself later became a nun and
was known for speaking out against witchcraft and sorcery. She was
canonized a saint on May 1, 779. Since the celebration of her sainthood
and the old Viking festival occurred around the same time, over the
years the festivals and traditions intermingled until the hybrid
pagan-Catholic celebration became known as Valborgsmässoafton or
Walpurgisnacht – Walpurgis Night.
The Other Halloween
Although not widely known in the US, this May-Eve night shares many of
the traditions of Halloween and is, in fact, directly opposite
Halloween
on the calendar.
According to the ancient legends, this night was the last chance for
witches and their nefarious cohorts to stir up trouble before Spring
reawakened the land. They were said to congregate on Brocken, the
highest peak in the Harz Mountains – a tradition that comes from
Goethe's Faust. In the story, the demon Mephistopheles brings Faust to
Brocken to consort with the coven of witches:
The witches t'ward the Brocken strain
When the stubble yellow, green the grain.
The rabble rushes - as 'tis meet -
To Sir Urian's lordly seat.
O'er stick and stone we come, by jinks!
The witches f..., the he-goat s...
...
The broomstick carries, so does the stock;
The pitchfork carries, so does the buck;
Who cannot rise on them tonight,
Remains for aye a luckless wight.
To ward off the witches’ evil, the citizenry would burn bonfires,
sprinkle holy water and adorn their homes with talismans of blessed
palm
leaf. One of the best ways to keep evil at bay, they thought, was
through noise. This is an idea that probably dates back to early man.
On
Walpurgis Night, the citizens would ring bells, bang drums, crack whips
and beat blanks of wood onto the ground. As technology advanced, they
would shoot firearms into the air.
Walpurgis Night even features its own version of Trick or Treat in some
parts of Europe, especially Germany. In Bavaria, for example, where the
celebration is known as a Freinacht or Drudennacht, the young might
roam
the neighborhoods pulling mischievous pranks, such as wrapping cars in
toilet paper and smearing doorknobs with toothpaste.
In Thueringen, Germany, some of the little girls dress up as witches,
wearing paper hats and carrying sticks.
In Finland, where the holiday is called Vappu, the ordinarily reserved
Finns run screaming through the streets wearing masks and carrying
drinks.
Halloween-like scarecrows make an appearance, too. Life-size or smaller
strawmen are created and ritually imbued with all the back luck and ill
will of the past year. They are then tossed on the Walpurgis bonfires
along with worn-out, burnable household items.
A Time of Magic
Some believe that Walpurgis, like Halloween, is more than a time of
ritual spellcasting – that it is a time when the barrier between our
world and the “supernatural†is more easily crossed. Winifred Hodge
writes in Waelburga and the Rites of May, “Since this is a
turning-tide when the season is not quite one thing or another – a
‘between-time,’ it is very suitable for occult divination and
spellcraft: a time to take advantage of the thinner veils between the
worlds and the fact that our minds are temporarily focused away from
everyday affairs and onto the magical energies of Nature's spring
tides.
This is a time for looking into that which is coming into being and
which should be, for seeking deep roots of life-knowledge and
life-mysteries, for love-magic and spells of growth and change,
conception and birth – in fact, for almost all the elements of what
is
often called 'women's magic.'"
In his book Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places, Brad
Steiger adds that “Walpurgis Night has traditionally been regarded as
one of the most powerful nights for ghosts, demons, and long-legged
beasties... [It] has an even greater potential for smashing the
barriers
between the seen and unseen worlds.â€