Walpurgis Night: How the North Burns Winter on the Last of April

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 09:00:00 +0000

The last night of April is when the North collectively decides it has had enough of winter and lights a fire about it. From Copenhagen you can practically hear it happening across the Sound — Sweden going up in bonfires, choirs bellowing the spring in, a whole student class deciding that thirty hours without sleep is a reasonable price for the end of the dark. This is Valborg, Walpurgis Night, and it is the loud cousin of the quiet Danish midsummer I grew up with. I want to tell you where it comes from, because the answer involves an English saint who never set foot up here and almost certainly never wanted a bonfire named after her.

Valborg on vo.rs

Walpurgis Night: How the North Burns Winter on the Last of April