People believed that on this night witches fly on the Sabbath, and indeed this is one of the biggest pagan holidays. The festival was probably originally celebrated when the moon was full closest to the day exactly between the spring equinox and summer solstice.
The night between 30 April and 1 May was considered magical. On that night, people gather together, light bonfires, and celebrate the coming of spring. This is a very old and still observed folk custom and special holiday. In the Czech Republic, the festival called "Burning the Witches" (also Philp & Jacob Night, Walpurgis Night or Beltane) takes place on the night between 30 April and 1 May. Since 1988 "Feuer in den Alpen" (fires in the Alps) have been lit on a day in August on mountains so they can be seen from afar as an appeal for sustainable development of mountain regions.
There are also "Sonnwendfeuer" (solstice fires) ignited on the evening of 21 June. In Austria " Osterfeuer", Easter fires, are widespread, but also regulated in some cities, districts and countries to hold down the resulting annual peak of PM10-dust emission. The burning of "winter in effigy" at the Sechseläuten in Zürich (introduced in 1902) is inspired by this Alemannic tradition. Red shows traditions of Funkensonntag (the Sunday following Ash Wednesday), blue shows traditions of 1 March.īonfire traditions of early spring, lit on the Sunday following Ash Wednesday ( Funkensonntag), are widespread throughout the Alemannic German speaking regions of Europe and in parts of France.
Regional traditions ĭistribution of Funkenfeuer in Alemannic Europe, France and Northern Italy. In 1755, Samuel Johnson misattributed the origin of the word as a compound of the French "bon" (meaning good) and the English "fire" in A Dictionary of the English Language. The earliest recorded uses of the word date back to the late-15th century, with the Catholicon Anglicum spelling it as banefyre and John Mirk's Book of Festivals speaking of a communal fire in celebrations of Saint John's Eve that "was clene bones & no wode & that is callid a bone fyre." The word is a compound of the words "bone" and "fire."
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