Saint Walpurga (c. 710 – 777 or 779), was an English missionary to the Frankish Empire. She was canonized on 1 May, ca. 870 by Pope Adrian II. Her feast day commemorates the translation of her relics on 1 May.
Walpurgis Night is celebrated on the night of April 30th, the eve of Saint Walpurga’s feast, when the witches and other occult folk can celebrate before being banished by the dawn of this saint’s special day.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s Guest – a short story published by the writer’s widow a few years after his death – is thought by some to be a “lost” or excised first chapter of his novel Dracula. We have included the story as the opening to our series The Complete Dracula (#1 coming very, very soon).
Dracula’s Guest takes place on the outskirts of Munich on Walpurgis Nacht, so what better day than today to read it?
Some of you might also be interested in realtimedracula.livejournal.com (a project similar to Dracula Blogged – which we found invaluable when we first started working on TCD) via which you can follow Johnathan Harker, Professor Van Helsing and the other main characters on Twitter as they microblog their way through the events of the novel (and Dracula’s Guest) in real time.
Have a very happy Walpurgis Night!