WALPURGIS NIGHT

ORIGIN

• English Missionary Saint Walpurga 710-779
• Became canonized on May 1, 870
• Known for speaking out against witchcraft
• Night before her canonization became Walpurgis Night

WALPURGIS NIGHT

• Night were witches gathered on Brocken
• Boundaries between is at it's thinnest
• Ghosts, spirits , demons, and devil could walk the earth

BROCKEN

• Brocken, where witches and demons gather
• A.K.A. Blocksberg
• Highest peak of northern Germany
• Brocken spectre

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WITCHES?

• Witches celebrating on the Brocken were ordinary humans
• Adhered to pagan religion
• Worshiped secretly in mountains

WALPURGIS NIGHT

• Walpurgisnacht
• Valborgsmassoafton
• Vappu
• Volbrioo
• Valpurgijos naktis

WALPURGIS NIGHT

• Valpurgu nakts
• Valpurzina noc
• Chodotypalenje
• Chodojtypalenje

CELEBRATE

• Carnival
• Costumes
• Drinking
• Folk songs
• Ankenschnitt

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• Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels
• First reference in poem in 1300s
• 1756 Johann Friedrich Lowen
• 1808 Goethe references Walpurgis night