Walpurgis Night
Walpurgis Night is an annual European spring festival and feast of witches and evil souls on which the power of darkness is at its strongest. The event plays a central role in the first game and first anime in the Bible Black series, both using the Spanish translation La Noche de Walpurgis as their subtitle. It is also featured prominently in the prequel anime.
The night is held on the middle of the night on the last day of April, when witches and the leader of the demons hold a banquet.
It is said to have been derived from a festival held on May 1st, celebrating St. WalpurgisWP, an 8th century missionary. This saint was later confused with the pagan goddess of fertility, Waltburg, and so the night came to be known as the one when witches and demons were the most active. But initially this was the day they celebrated St. Walpurgis' relics being transferred to the German town of EichstättWP.[1]
In German, Walpurgisnacht is also the name of a scene and act in FaustWP, a play by the German writer Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWP.[2]
Contents
History
First ritual on Walpurgis Night
Student Hiroko Takashiro plans to summon the Devil on Walpurgis Night with her magic club Rose Cross in the abandoned basement of their school, coincidentally exactly one year after she formed the group.[3] Using the knowledge in the Bible Black grimoire, they intend to get the demon on their side and share in his powers by ritualistically sacrificing a virgin human body.
When Nami Kozono assumes leadership of the club, Takashiro tries to stop them, but is tied up and gagged by her girlfriends.
Kozono then unsuccessfully tries to use the girl Reika Kitami as a sacrifice and eventually kills the other present members of the club instead. As the gates of hell open, she is stabbed and killed by the mortally wounded Kitami, who makes a contract with the Devil in exchange for her life.
Second ritual on Walpurgis Night
Twelve years later, the adult Reika Kitami, now working as a nurse at the same school, attempts to exchange bodies with virgin student Kurumi Imari on Walpurgis Night to trick the Devil into preserving her own soul. Her followers prepare by having a lavish orgy, and filling a golden chalice with semen and blood.
Kitami's ritual is eventually interrupted by student Taki Minase and art teacher Hiroko Takashiro and does not complete fully.
Gallery
Kitami used as a sacrifice.
Kozono murders everyone...
...and embraces the Devil.
Kitami's followers prepare.
Imari on Walpurgis Night.
Kitami cuts her wrist.
Minase interrupts the ritual.
The night comes to a climax.
External links
- Walpurgis Night on Wikipedia.
Sources
- ↑ GAME1 | Minase: Walpurgis Night is the middle of the night on the last day of April when witches and the leader of the demons hold a banquet. (...) It is said that every year on the last day of April, all of the witches and sorcerers from around the world gather at the top of Germany's highest mountain, Mt. Brocken in the Harz mountains. But this is said to have been derived from a festival held on May 1, celebrating St. Walpurgis, an 8th century missionary. This saint was later confused with the pagan goddess of fertility, Waltburg, and so the night in question came to be known as the one when witches and demons were the most active. But initially this was the day they celebrated St. Walpurgis's relics being transferred to Eichstatt.
- ↑ GAME1 | Shiraki: "Was it the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique? One of the movements was called Walpurgis Night's Dream. And I think there was also a scene in Goethe's Faust with the same title.
- ↑ GAME1 | Takashiro: "We formed our coven exactly one year before the tragedy."
