Die erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night) is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe telling of efforts by Druids in the Harz Mountains to practice their pagan rituals in the face of new and dominating Christian forces.

It was set to music by the young Lutheran Felix Mendelssohn as a secular cantata (or "Sinfonie-Ballade" in the composer's correspondence) for soloists (alto, tenor, baritone, bass), chorus and orchestra.

Mendelssohn completed this work in an initial version in 1831, which was first performed at his parents' home after Goethe's death the following year and then publicly on 10 January 1833 at the Sing-Akademie in Berlin with himself on the podium.

A comic solution emerges as a Druid watchman suggests a masquerade of the Devil, spirits, and demons to frighten the occupying Christians.

[1] The attractions of this text for Mendelssohn likely were the ghost scene (compare his incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream) and the triumph (by guile) of an oppressed group in an occupied land, an important Enlightenment idea,[1] as well as one perhaps reflecting the composer's Jewish background: the final verses of the oratorio emphasize an abstract divinity ("dein Licht") over a threatened earthly ritual ("den alten Brauch").