Hexennacht!

Oo-er! Get those bonfires, lit, dear reader - the witches are coming!

It is the night when witches gather to dance with the Devil and evil spirits run free.

People dress up in costumes, play trick or treat, and light fires to protect themselves against malevolent forces.

And yet if this sounds like Halloween, think again.

Every year on April 30, millions of people around the world celebrate Walpurgis Night, the eve of May Day.

It has been described as the ‘other Halloween’, only marking the coming of summer, rather than winter, and is held exactly six months before the better-known festival.

Until fairly recently it was an annual date on calendars in the Grimsby area and around Lincolnshire, especially in rural areas where ancient traditions die hard.

People would hang up cowslips (a spring flower) to scare off evil spirits and protect their animals.

For others... it was the original ‘Mischief Night’, when the normal rules of society did not apply and friends would get together to play pranks, start fires or hold ‘Satanic’ rituals.

In recent decades, Walpurgis Night has fallen off the British calendar, but it remains a hugely popular festival throughout much of Europe.

In Germany, it is known as Witches Night, when witches are said to gather with the Devil and evil ghosts attempt to prevent the coming of summer.

Over the border in the Czech Republic, huge bonfires are lit on hilltops for the ‘Burning of the Witches’. Having defeated evil, the next day - May 1 - is a day for lovers.

In Scandinavian countries, there are carnivals, while in Estonia people dress up as witches and parade in the streets.

Walpurgis Night is named after Saint Walpurga, an English princess who fought witchcraft and sorcery, as well as, according to legend, rabies and whooping cough.

Time for some appropriate music, methinks:

Bette Midler - I Put a Spell On You [Hocus Pocus]

Walpurgis Night on Wikipedia.

[More May Day/Beltane/čarodějnice/volbriöö/Hexennacht shenanigans over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp]