Walpurgis Night

Although towering cathedrals and church spires are part of Stockholm’s cityscape, there still remain in this Scandinavian city some remnants of its past pagan religions. Before Christianity first founded its chapels, churches, cathedrals and convents in the 14 major islands of Stockholm and the rest of the Swedish archipelago, pagan rituals such as Walpurgis night were widely practiced all over Sweden as well as in other European countries. In fact, it is interesting to note that aside from Christmas, the two other most widely-celebrated annual holidays in Sweden, which are Midsummer Night and Walpurgis Night, are celebrations that stem their beginnings from pagan beliefs.

Walpurgis Night is a sort of Viking ritual, and Sweden being a Scandinavian country, it comes as no surprise that this holiday is known and practiced all over the archipelago. It is believed that Viking god died on Walpurgis Night because of a mission that required him to gather information from ancient runes. With the Viking god dead, the balance between good and evil