A sad day for many Germans

I've suddenly realised what day it is today: the last day of April. This means that tomorrow will be the first day of May, a public holiday in Germany. (This is not the case in the UK, though, which pushes Labour Day onto the first Monday of May - can't interrupt big business, can we?)

What I like about the Germans is their philosophy of "Feste feiern wie sie fallen" - "make hay while the sun shines", but literally translated as "celebrate the parties as they fall".

Germans would not push a public holiday onto any other day, which is why, if May Day falls in the middle of the week, they will still party the evening before.

And Germans like to be organised, which is why they even have a name for the partying on 30 April: Tanz in den Mai ("dancing into May").

Originally, though, the dancing was (still is) part of the celebrations of Walpurgis Night, which is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th century abbess canonised on 1 May.

According to Wikipedia: Saint Walpurga was hailed by the Christians of Germany for battling "pest, rabies and whooping cough, as well as against witchcraft." Christians prayed to God through the intercession of Saint Walpurga in order to protect themselves from witchcraft.

If you've ever read Goethe's Faust Part I (I did so last year - don't bother), you will have come across the scene in it where the witches dance around a fire on Walpurgis Night. 

From Wikipedia again: In Germany, Hexennacht ("Witches' Night"), the night from 30 April to 1 May, is the night when witches are reputed to hold a large celebration on the Brocken and await the arrival of spring and is held on the same night as Saint Walpurgis Night (Sankt Walpurgisnacht).

These days, however, people just use 30 April as an excuse to go out dancing until the wee hours of the morning. They literally dance until April turns into May. 

This evening, though, is a very sad day - and not just because the weather has turned cold and overcast. No, because of this virus and the so-called 'lockdown', no-one is going to be partying in any venue this year. Sure, we'll all get the day off tomorrow, but it won't feel the same without the previous night's conviviality.