When is the Walpurgis Night 2025? And what is the meaning behind it?

It is haunted by the threshold between winter and spring, between April and May. And not just in the Harz, not just on the legendary witch dance place on the Brocken, where everything is supposed to have its origin. In the meantime, the Walpurgis night has become a widespread festival. Here you will find information about the exact date, the origin and the importance of the nightly mummery, which is also called « witch burning » in some places. Which custom is connected to it?

By the way: you will find with us All dates for the holidays in Germany.

Date: When is Walpurgis Night 2025?

The Walpurgis night always takes place on the night of April 30th to May 1st. In 2025 this date falls on the night from Wednesday to Thursday. Since the day after the night always falls on the statutory May day, the stubborn celebrations remain a chance to sleep in every year in the morning.

Origin and meaning: What happens in the Walpurgis night?

The Walpurgis night is a traditional North and Central European festival on April 30, which usually runs far beyond midnight to May 1st. The name of the festival is derived from St. Walburga, which was celebrated until the Middle Ages on May 1, the day of its canonization. As a « dance in the May », the last night of April because of the opportunity to dance and conviviality on the eve of the work -free May day also found its way into private and commercial events as an urban, secular annual event.

Traditionally, the night from April 30th to May 1st is the night when the witches of the legend, especially on the Blocksberg – that is actually the chunk in the Harz – held a big festival. However, such rituals (in the literature of the 15th and 16th centuries « Hexensabbat ») allegedly also took place in other increased places. As part of the Enlightenment, the hustle and bustle lost a lot from his pagan zeal and was simply seen as a happy festival to adopt winter and to greet spring. Nevertheless, the Walpurgis Night was for a long time eyeed by the church and the state and even banned at times.

The term « Walpurgisnacht » was popular by Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe made the term « Walpurgisnacht » popular – not only in the « Faust », but also through his ballad « the first Walpurgis night ». The work revolves around the nightly struggle between pagan druids and Christian priests, which the poet prince tells with clear sympathy for the supporters of the pre -Christian natural religion. In his setting, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy also makes it clear in his setting, whose side he stands – it is certainly not Goethe’s anxious and superstitious « Pfaffencrists ».

Customs of the Walpurgis Night

As already mentioned, the night from April 30th to May 1st is used in many places for a « dance in May », which has the least to do with religion – be it pagan or Christian. This also applies to the customs of mostly younger men who do all sorts of nonsense in the so -called rough or free night – sometimes harmless to silly, but often but also dangerous and punishable.

The real Walpurgis nights, on the other hand, are best experienced in the Harz, where countless places have made celebrating and lighting joy fabric a tourist attraction. The Harz Walpurgis nights are celebrated in more than 20 locations in the region. The center of the bubbling witch kettle is located in the towns of Bad Grund, Braunlage, Hahnenklee, Sankt Andreasberg, Schierke and Thale.

Knorrigent old, eerily beautiful witches and demon -like beings are inextricably linked around the blazing flames of the resin. It is danced, laughed, celebrated. A festival program with jugglers, ghosts and all the witch people inspires the guests who have traveled everywhere. If you do not want to travel the way to the Brocken on your rifle broom, the steaming Brockenbahn is recommended, which pushes up the mountain under the witch shouting and devil’s howl.

Is the Walpurgis night a holiday?

The Walpurgis Night on April 30th is not a holiday – the Day of work on May 1st But yes, and so sleeping in is possible for most people.