Walpurgisnacht, or May Eve is rooted in the pagan Spring Festival. Directly opposite All Hallows Eve in the seasonal cycle, it was once widely celebrated among all Germanic peoples. The current festival is in most countries celebrating it named after Saint Walpurga, born in Devon about 710. Due to her holy day falling on the same day, her name became associated with the celebrations. Walpurga was honored in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread throughout Europe, the two dates became mixed together and created the Walpurgis Night celebration. Early Christianity had a policy of 'Christianising' pagan festivals so it is perhaps no accident that St. Walpurga's day was set to May 1.

Whereas North America associates witches and sorcery with Halloween, April 30 is when things get spooky in Germany. Legends tell of blue flames igniting above buried treasure, ladies flying on broomsticks, and the ghostly Wild Hunt pursuing the goddess Walpurga through snowstorms and hail.

"There is a mountain very high and bare, whereon it is given out that witches hold their dance on Walpurgis Night," writes folklorist Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology about the Brocken, sometimes shown on old maps as the Blocksberg. "Our forefathers kept the beginning of May as a great festival, and it is still regarded as the trysting time of witches."

Witching hour on May Eve may be the transitional time when winter becomes spring but for many of us, May Day itself is the long awaited beginning of renewed creativity and warm summer days to come!