About Walpurgis Night
Walpurgis Night marks the eve of the feast of Saint Walpurga, the 8th-century English missionary canonised on 1 May, but the night itself is older than the saint: it sits halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, on a calendar pivot that pre-Christian Europe celebrated as the start of summer (Beltane in the Celtic world). The German tradition holds that witches gather on this night on the Brocken peak in the Harz Mountains — an image fixed in the European imagination by Goethe's Faust.
For a deeper historical treatment, see Walpurgis Night — Wikipedia.
The Swedish Valborg is one of the great Nordic spring festivals: bonfires are lit at lakeshores and town squares, choirs sing the springtime hymns, and university students wear their white caps for the first time since the autumn. Finland's Vappu is a riot of student picnics, sparkling wine and balloons. Estonia's Volbriöö dovetails with international Workers' Day on 1 May.
Traditional greetings
The phrases below are the ones most often used to mark Walpurgis Night in person, by phone, and on cards. The native-script column shows the greeting as a recipient would read it; the transliteration is for those who would like to say it aloud; the English column is a literal rather than a poetic translation.
| Language | Greeting | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| German | Frohe Walpurgisnacht | Happy Walpurgis Night | |
| Swedish | Glad Valborg | Happy Valborg | |
| Finnish | Hauskaa vappua | Fun Vappu |
Design tips for printable Walpurgis Night cards
Hand-printed cards for Walpurgis Night reward restraint and specific reference. The notes below distil what the most thoughtful cards in the tradition tend to do — and what the most commercial ones tend to get wrong.
- A single bonfire silhouette against a deep dusk sky — the festival in one image.
- Birch branches in fresh new leaf, evoking the spring the night welcomes.
- For Finnish Vappu cards, a single white student cap is the most loved motif.
- Use the colours of a northern dusk: deep teal sky, ember orange, fresh leaf-green, soft cream.
- Inside, a line about the turn of the season — Walpurgis is more about welcome than ritual.
A starting palette:
Five verses for Walpurgis Night cards
Each verse below is short enough to copy onto a folded card by hand. They progress from formal to intimate; pick the one that best fits the relationship and the year you are writing into.
- On the night winter finally lets go, the bonfires light themselves. Glad Valborg.
- May this Walpurgis burn off whatever is left of the long cold, and leave only spring underneath.
- Hauskaa vappua. May the white cap come out of its box, the sparkling wine be cold, and the small park be full.
- From the Brocken peak to your back garden, the same old hopeful fire on the same old night.
- Bonfires, birch branches, the first warm air of the year — blessings on your Walpurgis Night.
Related cultural holidays
Other holidays observed in the Europe family of traditions: