Walpurgis Night

Origin

Walpurgis Night

noun
(especially in medieval German folklore) the evening preceding the feast day of St. Walpurgis, when witches congregated, especially on the Brocken.
German, Wal·pur·gis·nacht [vahl-poor-gis-nahkht] .
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Walpurgis Night is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
Collins
World English Dictionary
Walpurgis Night (vælˈpʊəɡɪs)
 
n
the eve of May 1, believed in German folklore to be the night of a witches' sabbath on the Brocken, in the Harz Mountains
 
[C19: translation of German Walpurgisnacht, the eve of the feast day of St Walpurga, 8th-century abbess in Germany]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

Walpurgis night
1822, from Ger. Walpurgisnacht, witches' revel, especially on Brocken, on May-day eve, lit. "the night of (St.) Walpurgis," from Walburga, Eng. abbess who migrated to Heidenheim, Germany, and died there c.780; May 1 being the day of the removal of her bones from Heidenheim to Eichstädt.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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