One of the very unique German holidays celebrated on annual basis is the night before May Day also known as Walpurgis Night. What's interesting about this day is that it’s very similar to Halloween with the supernatural foundation.
I was looking through all of the customs in Germany that many of us celebrate and are very unique to our culture. I found that this night, the celebration of Walpurgis definitely falls as one of the unique qualities of Germany with all its witches and devils.
Interestingly this night falls on 30 April as opposed to the end of October or the beginning of November, as celebrated and other parts of the world. Walpurgis is also similar Halloween and that it is of pagan origin.
As many of us may already know, Walpurgis night is its traditional Spring Festival that is celebrated with lots of dancing, fun, and bonfires exactly 6 months from All Hallows' Eve. As tradition follows in Germany on this night, witches are rumored to hold a large celebration on the Brocken Mountain since it is the highest of the Harz Mountains in North Central Germany.
The greatest part of this celebration is the mysterious aspect since the mountains provide a foggy cloudy atmosphere, perfect for some supernatural phenomena.
We can also get very creative with our costumes as many of us already do. Some choose to transform into witches, with long point black hats while others, primarily guys, choose to transform into red devils. The costumes add that extra factor of fun to a historic tradition that many of us look forward to, each and every year.
A custom that I hope will never end, is the traditional lighting of massive bonfires; this tradition is usually kept alive near the northern coastal regions of Germany. Popular youth culture in Germany also tends to play various pranks on neighbors by tampering with gardens, hiding possessions, or spraying graffiti on private property.
Overall, this tradition is unique to Germany and very few other European countries. As part of our culture and for the sake of tradition, we should continue practicing this custom for the world to see how awesome we are in Germany.
