Walpurgis Night - Or How The Swedes Celebrate Spring

Walpurgis Night is the Feast of Valborg and the official start of spring. Swedes and other Scandinavians celebrate it every year on the 30th of April.

The celebrations are marked by large bonfires. People – tired of snow and low temperatures – get together and sing. In university towns like Uppsala and Lund students wear white caps and dance the night away.

The Swedes call it Valborgsmässoafton – if you don’t know the language and dare to pronounce it: good luck!

The celebration has a Viking background. The Vikings celebrated the fertility of spring around the 30th of April in a similar way as the Swedes do now.

The bonfires were originally meant to frighten off the evil spirits.

However, the name Walpurgis Night came later.

Walpurgis, also known as Valborg, Wealdburg and Valderburger, is named after a nun born in the year 710. It’s not clear where, although most believe it was in (what is now) Britain.

In Germany she was abbess of the convent Heidenheim. Valborg died in 779. People worshipped her. The church declared her a saint on the 1st of May of that year.

When the Vikings spread across Europe the dates of celebrating spring and declaring Walpurgis as a saint, got mixed up.

Every year a big Walpurgis Night celebration is held in Skansen, Stockholm’s open-air museum.

It’s not a public holiday in Sweden, but the next day is: the 1st of May is now Labor Day. So don’t think the Swedes go to bed early on the 30st of April.

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