Thursday Things: Walpurgis Night Edition
30 April 2020. Vol 2 No 18. By Dan McGirt. #38
Welcome to Thursday Things! And a safe and happy Walpurgis Night to you. What is Walpurgis Night? Read on!
Witches not included. Photo by Court Cook on Unsplash
April 30 is Walpurgis Night, celebrated mainly in Scandinavia and Northern Europe with bonfires and dancing. If you ever saw Disney’s Fantasia, you might remember the scariest part - ‘A Night on Bald Mountain’ - which absolutely terrified me as a child. That is Walpurgis Night — in folklore considered a time when witches gather, demons are about, and other scary and dubious things go on. Dayfinders has an informative Q&A page about Walpurgis that give you the lowdown:
Walpurgis Night is an annual event held that takes place between the last day of April (April 30th) and the first day of May (May 1st). Its origins date back to the pagan fertility rites and the coming of spring. But with the Christianization of the Northern peoples of Europe, this holiday was combined with the commemoration of Walpurg or Saint Walpurga, which is a celebration held in honor of a nun.
Here are a few more fun facts about the day:
Walpurgis Night, also known as Saint Walpurga’s Eve, was the eve of the Christian feast day of St. Walpurga, a French abbess of the 8th-century, and took place the night of 30 April and the day of 1 May. The feast commemorated St. Walpurg’s canonization and the movement of her relics to Eichstätt on 1 May 870. Walpurga was a nun who lived in the 8th century. She was born in England and at some point in her life, she moved to Germany where she founded a Catholic Convent. It is believed that she cured the illnesses of local residents, therefore she was canonized by the miracles she performed.
That’s lovely.
Walpurgis Night was considered as the night when the veil is thinnest. When spirits and devils walk amongst humans. Bram Stoker wrote: Walpurgis night was when the devil was abroad when the graves were opened, and the dead came forth and walked. When all evil things of Earth and air and water held revel.
Seems like a good night to stay at home. That is not my idea of a fun Friday night.
In Germanic folklore, Hexennacht, literally ‘the witch nights’, was believed to be the night off of the meeting between witches on Brocken, the highest summit of the Harz Mountains, a range forest hills in central Germany between the rivers Weser and Elbe.
This is what is depicted in the (again, terrifying and not at all suitable for young children) Bald Mountain sequence from Fantasia I mentioned previously. This year, however, I would like to remind all witches, ghosts, devils, and whatnot that social distancing is in order. So please stay home instead of terrorizing the countryside.
Moon is looking a little infected, honestly. Source: NASA/GSFC/USGS
Those planning moonlit broom rides anyway may want to know more about that big orbiting rock in the sky. Good news! USGS releases first complete geologic map of the Moon:
The USGS (with help from NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute) has released the first complete geologic map of the Moon, providing a truly comprehensive look at our nearest cosmic neighbor. The 1:5,000,000 scale map is color-coded to help you quickly identify geological features, including multiple crater types, plains and other features.
Submitted by a Happy Subscriber: The 15 Most Bizarre Medical Treatments Ever.
For the first time ever, a study finds out what CEOs actually do Spoiler alert: meetings. Lots of meetings.
Tired of Netflix? Watch 12 Classic Chinese Films Online, Complete with English Subtitles (1920s-1940s)
This YouTube playlist curated by the Department of Asian Studies of the University of British Columbia features a dozen notable films and influential classics from two and half decades of Chinese history, some of the most tumultuous years for that nation. … The collection begins with the oldest surviving film in the series, Labourer’s Love, a two-reeler from 1922 directed by Zhang Shichuan.
How crazy are things in 2020? The Pentagon this week officially released UFO videos taken by Navy fighter pilots, and hardly anyone noticed.
This is a more Georgia-centric item: A LOOK BACK: Old Rides, Attractions At Six Flags Over Georgia. For those not from these parts, Six Flags Over Georgia, which opened in 1967, is an amusement park near Atlanta. For those of us who grew up here it was the far more accessible and affordable alternative to Disney World and trips to Six Flags were a highlight of the summer. I’m sure it still is, though I haven’t been there in years. (And I doubt that will change this summer…)
Over time, old attractions are removed and new ones are added. I do remember fondly some of the rides pictured in this slideshow — Tales of the Okefenokee, Mo-Mo the Monster, the Great Gasp (I think I rode that exactly once), and my favorite — The Dahlonega Mine Train. What were your favorite Six Flags rides of yore?
Thanks for reading Thursday Things! Stay healthy, stay safe, and I’ll see you next Thursday.