Night of the Witches: Folklore, Traditions & Recipes for Celebrating Walpurgis Night

by Linda Raedisch

Witches, goblins, and ghosts in the warm springtime: what could be more fun? The roots of Walpurgis Night reach deep into the Pagan past, and modern Europeans celebrate it with as much abandon as their ancestors did. Walpurgis Night, in Germanic tradition, is a dark night at the end of April when witches are out celebrating and causing mischief. This charming book explores the history of this frightful night and explains how to celebrate it with seasonal activities, simple crafts, and tasty recipes.

Readers will learn about the sacred rites of spring and the thirteen herbs that correspond with the Night of the Witches. They'll discover how this "lost" holiday has changed from a lusty fertility festival to a children's night of fun and treats, learn a bit about brooms and how to make one, and meet a collection of old-time Witches, from Ash Wives to Wolf Crones.

Genres: Nonfiction, Folklore, Witches, Witchcraft, Holiday, History, Spirituality

264 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

Linda Raedisch has written four books of nonfiction, including The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year (Llewellyn 2013), which has been translated into Czech, Russian, and Polish, and The Secret History of Christmas Baking: Recipes and Stories from Tomb Offerings to Gingerbread Boys (Llewellyn 2023). Her first novel, Turn Left at the Mooncrow Skeleton, will be released in October 2023. She likes long titles.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book as Raedisch pulls together Walpurgis night traditions from across Europe, drawing from every tradition and showing how they tie together to create the celebrations that we see today. This is Pagan heavy but then much of modern witchcraft does draw from Pagan and Wicca as these are where much of the information has been recorded, although there is plenty of acknowledgement that much of this pre-dates these two belief systems. I also rather like Raedisch incorporation and delicate needling of more modern religions that have 'borrowed' from these older traditions. While this isn't written for those of us already familiar with Walpurgis, or Beltane as many of us know it as, it is still rather entertaining and has some extra ideas, recipes, and the like that can be used by non-witches for a little heathen fun, or by those of us looking for a few new ideas to celebrate Beltane. I even found out a few new things about some of my favourite herbs, which is always a bonus in my book.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I enjoyed some of the recipes and jeopardy type knowledge, but that was about it.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the history and traditions surrounding the celebration of an event that is not as common in the US.

[Yasmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of interesting little book with recipes and craft ideas. Would have been nice to have had more of a cultural background.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Night of the Witches is about Walpurgis Night. Linda Raediseh is a practicing witch that lives in New Jersey. Walpurgis Night is germanic celebration of Spring or May Eve. The book goes into a hodgepodge of areas including the history, festivals, food, broom stick making, magic potions for flight and many other areas for celebrating Walpurgis Night. It ties Walpurgis Night with the Catholic Saint Walburga. Detailed recipes for Crispy Witch Salad, Cold May Punch, Sima (Mead), Finnish May Day Fritters and other recipes. It has lots of details for making crafts for Walpurgis Night. It has a field guide to the old world witches describing the different witches such as Alraune, Ash Wife, Bilwis, Cauldron Carriers, Drude and others. It goes into the different herbs used by ancient witches such as Angelica, Anise, Chervil, Dill snd others including poisonous herbs like Mandrake. The book was interesting and worth reading.

[Sheena Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library but I'm going to have to buy it soon! There's a lot of cool recipes in here that I'd like to try.

[Lucia Graziano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incerta tra le due e le tre stelline, diciamo che è un libro che ha una sua precisa ragion d'essere (in seno alla spiritualità neopagana) ma che non consiglierei ha un interesse prettamente storico per quanto riguarda il folklore legato alla notte di santa Valpurga (la bibliografia è scarnissima, per dire, e l'interesse dell'autrice per il tema non scaturisce da un interesse accademico).
Non lo consiglierei se ci fossero alternative, quantomeno, ma la realtà dei fatti è che sulla notte di santa Valpurga è stato scritto pochissimo, in senso divulgativo. E quindi aggiungiamo al libro una stellina in più, perché ha il merito di colmare questo vuoto nel panorama editoriale.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first five chapters are facts, history, and cultural heritage of the May Eve holiday, Beltane or Warpurgis night. They are very rich with information. My main criticism is that the book could have benefited from a more fluid and creative narrative style. Chapters six through nine are about crafting, cooking, and celebrating. I especially enjoyed the chapter on herbs, and I learned a better way to wrap my smudge sticks.

[Annemarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an easy to read book, but a lot of the information feels... jumbled. There's a lot of gods/goddess being made one and the same, and there's quite a large wiccan influence, despite Walpurgis Night originated well before Wicca was even invented.
There are many sources, but the points I felt most iffy about were often not sourced.
There is also a lot less information than I would have liked. A decent enough introduction, but kinda disappointing overall.

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting information, though not from the most up-to-date or accurate sources, hence three stars.

[Jules]

I start reading this again every year in Autumn as a preparation for Winter. Somehow, it seems to be the perfect bedside companion as the nights grow longer.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review: Night of the Witches, folklore, traditions & recipes for celebrating Walpurgis Night by Linda Raedisch. Woodbury, MN: Llewllyn 2011

In Germany and other Northern European countries, Walpurgis Night is celebrated on the evening of April 30th with bonfires, mischief, noisemaking, dancing and of course, drinking. In Night of the Witches, author Linda Raedisch explains that this traditional witches’ meeting on the highest mountain in Northern Germany is comparable to the American Halloween, although it shares May 1st eve with the Celtic celebration of Beltane. In a charming storytelling voice, Raedisch takes readers through the history of this ancient festival, weaving art, music, literature, linguistics and stories from around the world into her narrative. In keeping with her vast knowledge of folklore, the author connects the dots from the Walpurgis Night scenes in Goethe’s Faust, to references in Grimm’s fairy tales, Fraser’s Golden Bough and Mendelssohn’s music. But this is no dry academic tome. Night of the Witches presents the history and ancient lore of Walpurgisnacht with sly humor and provides recipes and crafts for readers who would like to celebrate the beginning of spring in their own households.

With the current interest in witches reflected in the bestseller list by Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches, perhaps the vampire craze of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series is giving way to another form of supernatural beings. If you want to know how these beliefs began and persisted through the ages, Night of the Witches will entertain and enlighten you. Do you know why loud noises are commonly favored at many celebrations? “Noisemaking remains a time-honored method of driving out evil at important turning points of the year, such as New Year’s Eve…” (6) Raedisch tells us.
What’s up with bonfires? “Our ancestors understood, perhaps better than we do today, that there is no such thing as a free lunch. If they wanted their crops and livestock to flourish, they had to offer something in return to the source of the abundance.” (7) The bonfires were used for live sacrifices, later straw substitutes. In chapter 5, A Field Guide to Witches, Raedisch describes thirteen kinds of witches, from hags to Valkyries to weathermakers, ending the chapter with a recipe for Poor Hags (similar to French toast), an origami kitchen witch, and a paper crone’s mask – one of which hangs in our library staff room. Full disclosure: why does the library have a crone’s mask? No, we are not a coven of witches, at least I don’t think we are. Author Linda Raedisch is a colleague at the library where I work, a friend, and the only person I know who has not only an encyclopedic knowledge of folklore, a knack for languages, a talent for arts, crafts and cooking, all wrapped up in a wry sense of humor.

This book is recommended for anyone interested in folklore, fairytales, German traditions, cultural studies, and of course, witches. Teenagers who enjoy fantasy books like Harry Potter and the Twilight series should read this non-fiction exploration of the subject. College students of linguistics and anthropology would also find this title fascinating.

[Alazzar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few months ago, my knowledge of Walpurgisnacht was limited to the fact that that's the day of the year Merle Corey would always have to deal with an assassin's attempt on his life in Roger Zelazny's Amber series. But then a friend and I were talking about it, wondering exactly what the holiday was, and decided we needed to learn more about the subject (especially since we liked the idea of essentially celebrating Halloween twice in one year).

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of great Walpurgisnacht info on the Internet. Fortunately, Linda Raedisch came to the rescue.

I feel like this book is essential for anyone who wants to celebrate this little-known (to Americans, anyway) holiday. It's got a lot of history about the event, along with some recipes and craft ideas.

But in the interests of full disclosure, I did find the book boring in a lot of parts. That's not the author's fault, though--it's just that I, personally, am not terribly interested in the origin stories of a dozen different herbs. But maybe that's your thing!

In any case, as far as I can tell this is the only book on the market that will teach a person how to celebrate Walpurgisnacht. So it's kind of important if that's what you're planning to do.

[Mariah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have long been curious about Walpurgisnacht, the eve of May Day (Maitag in German) but there is little information available about it. It is much like Halloween if it was celebrated in spring. I was impressed, this book was surprisingly well researched for a New Age press book. The first portion gives us the history and origins of Walpurgisnacht, discusses witches in German folklore and holiday customs.
The second part of the book has recipes, crafts and activities for the occasion. Many of them are simple & easy, including the materials needed, so it is quite family-friendly, as well as fun for adults who enjoy whimsy. All in all, Night of the Witches was fun & interesting, striking a good balance between background information & ideas for celebrating.