Join local historian Dr. Ned Heindel to explore the history and practices of Walpurgisnacht, “the Night of the Witches.”
Perhaps no occult event in Germanic and Western European folklore has received more attention than Walpurgisnacht, the all-night party of witches, Satan, and demons that takes place each April 30 to celebrate the devil’s birthday. Captured in many surprisingly similar paintings by dozens of medieval artists including Goya, Wick, Rosa, and Falero, the Witches Sabbath was also chronicled in text (usually verse) by Johannes Praetorius, Jacob Grimm, Bram Stocker, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Robert Burns. In the 1850s, Matthew Henry, a Northampton County teacher, historian, author, and map-maker claimed to have witnessed a Walpurgisnacht ritual on Hexenkopf Rock. Henry’s remembrances are eerily similar to both the early European artistic depictions of the scene and the Goethe/Burns poetic accounts.
Dr. Heindel will also be signing copies of his popular book, Hexenkopf: History, Healing, and Hexerei following the afternoon’s program. Books are available for purchase in the Sigal Museum Store.