Arendonk — Witches’ Sabbath

Long ago, the legend says, the Heksendonk at Arendonk was a place where the earth seemed drier and quieter than elsewhere — a spot where even the wind appeared to hesitate.

On Walpurgis Night, Easter Night or Midsummer’s Eve, countless witches from the surrounding region gathered there, summoned by a secret whistling heard by no one but themselves.

A heavy silence fell over the field before the feast began. Thousands of witches stood in their appointed places, awaiting the witch master — a fearsome figure.

He first had them counted; then, one by one, they knelt and kissed him in submission. The witch who pleased him most was crowned queen of the night.

What followed was a night of grotesque food and grim ritual. Toads, the flesh of the hanged, and rotting graveyard meat were eaten, and drink was taken from hollowed cow hooves.

Torches lit the crowd, kindled from the burning flame between the horns of the arch-devil himself. Yet if anyone uttered the name of God, Jesus, or even “salt”, the entire company vanished at once.

After the feast came strange music. A fiddler played a violin of horsehide with a bow made from a cat’s tail, joined by drums and pipes.

The witches leapt in frenzied dance until the climax of the sabbath: the burning of the great Goat. Each witch carried away a portion of ash, believed to bring harm. With the first light of dawn, the naked witches rose into the sky and returned home.