What is Valborg? (Walpurgis Night)

In this episode, we talk about the northern European feast day called "Walpurgis Night" or "Valborgsmässoafton" in Swedish, and explore some of key aspects of religion and ritual.

#Valborg #Sweden #Walpurga

[franciszekzatonski]

would Love Love Love if you made a video about slavic pre christian beliefs, thank you for your amazing content <3

[djallalnamri]

Walpurgis Night is also the title of a fantasy novel written by Gustav Meyrink.
the story takes place at the dawn of the First World War in the city of Prague (1917).
40 years later I learn where the expression "Walpurgis Night" comes from.
Thanks for the info and sharing and Greetings from Algeria.

[samwill]

Humans, planning almost any holiday: Let's eat, let's dance, let's get absolutely sloshed and let's set some shit on fire

But why?

Cause of this cool saint or whatever, let's party!

[hellethomsen]

In Denmark we do the singing, the speaches and the bonfires for summer solstice. In older days (and a few places to this day) Danes had a May pole like the Swedes hav for midsummer. Its like the ritualts have swapped dates.

[Pekara]

The „Walpurgis Nacht“ is also mentioned in „Faust“ from Goethe. One of the most famous books in German history.

[GrandmasterFerg]

The Celts call it Beltaine, Bealtaine is the Irish for May

[Nicolas-hhcp]

I'm a simple man, I see someone drinking around a fire, I join.

[jenspohnisch]

There’s so much to add taking about Walpurgisnacht in Germany! The witches, the devil, the dances at mount Brocken in the Harz region, Goethe…

[dracodistortion]

it's important to note that this festival also exists in the Baltic, Celtic, Slavic and other Indo-European societies. The festival does not have Christian roots, but Pagan ones. It's important to establish these Pagan roots in this festival. Survive the Jive has a good video on the Pagan roots of Indo-European May Day festivals across the Indo-European world.

[yetanotheryoutuber]

I love your conclusion. Looking at it that way even secular and atheist groups could have elaborate rituals - even nonsensical or jestfully mocking religion rituals and celebrations.

[kardinalen]

Valborg is also connected to the pre-christian ritual "Vánádísblot" which was a celebration of spring, fertility, the return of the Light and so on. So it has pagan origins too! Glad Valborg, in arrears! 🔥🇸🇪🔥

[OliveOilFan]

Fun fact: the famous Black Sabbath song, War Pigs, was originally named Walpurgis and would’ve been much more darker than the song we got.

[DarioHaruni]

In Albania we have a similar practice on 14th of March. It's called Summer Day (although it's spring technically). Traditionally we would light up fires and jump across them.

[danielmalinen]

In Finland, modern May Day is a celebration for labored workers and May Day is also a celebration for Matriculation Examinated students and May Day is also a political celebration. And at its worst, May Day incites discord between labored workers and Matriculation Examinated students when people drink themselves drunk and no longer tolerate each other. But otherwise, Finnish May Day is a happy family celebration, the beginning of summer, when we eat May Day donuts and drink raisin-sima (raisin-sima is a fermented non-alcoholic syrup-lemon drink with raisins).

Researchers suspect that the Finnish May Day shares ancient Helkajuhla or Toukojuhla traditions with Finnish versions Easter, Ascension Thursday and Pentecost, which included burning the Helka bonfire, letting the cattle out, drinking mead and ofgicial marriage day. Traditionally, Helka has been 50 or 60 days from the summer solstice, depending on the weather in late spring and it also means the starting point of traditional spring sowing ('toukotyöt' in Finnish).

Helka, on the other hand, has been a pagan-Christian celebration since the beginning of the 11th century. During the celebration, unmarried women have sung Helka hymns, the central part of which is three ballads have a strong medieval theme.

- Matalena’s hymn is a fantasy story of the sinful Mary Magdalene who met Christ Jesus and he reveals her sins.

- Inkeri's hym is a Lagmansvisa based story of the faithful lovers, Maiden Inkeri and Knight Lalmanti.

- And Annikainen's hymn is a variation of the Hanseatic setting, in which a girl from Turku is deceived and raped by a foreign merchant.

Then the ballads are followed by a short song about the Hart of Hiisi that drool and how the cosmic world tree is born from its spittle.

In the closing song, the maidens bid farewell to Jesus and Mother Mary, and say they will return to them next year again

Helka's hymns were believed to bring good fortune to the harvest, and it was said that "the fields cease to grow and producing harvest, if the people get tired of celebrating the Helka, or abandon their old traditions." Helka also includes many other beliefs like "rain on Helka time knows a very bad year" and "if you don't have a wife before Helka then you don't have a wife next year."

[DeepDarkSamurai]

This day has been celebrated on this important day way earlier than 777, this is a Beltane related holiday. The Indo-European people followed the arrival of spring. The saint was put there to try and usurp figured like the may queen on these days. The bonfire is part of Beltane.

[c.a.t.]

Walpurgis night is also the birthday of Lisbeth Salander, the heroine of Steig Larsson's Millenium trilogy. That's a good enough reason for me to celebrate it.

[markbkjaer]

In Denmark, we will often place a fake witch on the fire, sometimes with fireworks (heksehyl) inside so it sounds like the witch is screaming.

[seytanuakbar]

That was a old tradition in East Europe also, conecting with arrival of Spring. Before WW2 in Yugoslavia communist used to gather on hills and make bonfires as celebration of 1st May - Internatinal Labour Day. That tradition was commom until 1980-ies. It was a old ritual with new meaning. As a answer Roman Catholic Church invented a new holiday - St. Joseph the Worker.

[farhadfaisal]

It seems likely that the day arises from an older (pre-christian or "pagan") practice of celebrating the natural change of seasons than the region's Christian custom of celebrating the day of saint Walpurgis' sainthood. So, perhaps, it's not surprising that the Nordic and other north European people relate to it intimately even today (in this more secular era in Europe).

[CaptainMera]

Jag visste inte att du var svensk! :DDD
Super duger video! Tack för att du gör en sån informerade kanal. 🌻🌻🌻