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Today is “Valborg”, or more correctly “Valborgsmässafton”, St. Walpurgis Eve, a big party day in Sweden.

For one thing, it is the king’s birthday, but that is not the reason the day is celebrated. It is also the eve of May Day, the labor public holiday, which is not completely unrelated. People are off work the next day, so they can celebrate and party the night before. But the celebrations go far back before the rise of the labor movement, more than a thousand years back before the introduction of Christianity. The day marks the welcoming of spring to this northern latitude, with large bonfires.

When Christianity arrived, pagan holidays were converted along with the pagans. Spring bonfire day became a day to drive off witches and was assigned to St. Walpurgis, born in Wessex in Anglo-Saxon England in 710. Here’s the Wikipedia account of her life:

She was a niece of Saint Boniface and, according to legend, a daughter to the Saxon prince St. Richard. Together with her brothers she travelled to Franconia, Germany, where she became a nun and lived in the convent of Heidenheim, which was founded by her brother Wunibald. Walburga died on 25 February 779 and that day still carries her name in the Traditional Catholic Calendar. However she was not made a saint until 1 May in the same year, and that day carries her name for example in the Finnish and Swedish calendar.

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Historically the Walpurgisnacht is derived from Pagan spring customs, where the arrival of spring was celebrated with bonfires at night. Viking fertility celebrations took place around February 25 and due to Walburga being declared a saint at that time of year, her name became associated with the celebrations. Walburga 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. The main mascot of Walpurgis Day is the witch.

Curiously, in Lund, where I was student in the late 60’s and early 70’s, the day is known instead of “Sista April”, “Last of April”. According to the Swedish Wikipedia it also has this name in Uppsala and Linköping, also university towns.