Adjacent Words

Walpurgis Night definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: eve of May Day

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: part translation of German Walpurgisnacht, from Walpurgis Saint Walburga died A.D. 779 English saint whose feast day falls on May Day + German Nacht night Date: 1823 1. the eve of May Day on which witches are held to ride to an appointed rendezvous 2. something (as an event or situation) having a nightmarish quality

Britannica Concise

Night before May 1. The name comes from the 8th-cent. St. Walburga (or Walpurgis), an English missionary who ran an important early convent in Germany, May 1 being one of her feast days. In Sweden it is celebrated with bonfires as the beginning of spring. In Germany, as Walpurgisnacht, it was the night witches were supposed to meet in the Harz Mtns. (see Brocken), though the association of witches with St. Walburga is only coincidental. See also Beltane.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. the eve of 1 May when witches are alleged to meet on the Brocken mountain in Germany and hold revels with the Devil. Etymology: G Walpurgisnacht f. Walpurgis genit. of Walpurga Engl. woman saint (8th c.) + Nacht NIGHT