There’s an old Ray Bradbury short story called “the April Witch.”
As the story goes (spoilers for a 60 year old story!), an un-named, female magical creature wants to experience the human emotion “love.” Her parents warn her that if she ever “marries” a human, she will lose all her magical powers, but she is determined.
This being is capable of possessing things, including people. She assumes control of a young woman named Ann. A young man named Tom is trying to court Ann, but she dislikes him. Then un-named being however forces Ann to accept Tom’s invitation to a town dance. Ann is baffled why she accepted Tom’s invitation, and only slowly realizes that she is being controlled by an outside intelligence.
Ann and the being struggle for control of Ann’s body, and Ann reluctantly attends the dance with Tom - although Tom realizes something is very wrong with his date. The story ends with the being relinquishing control over Ann, and dreaming of meeting Tom herself one day.
The story is titled “The April Witch.” Although the magical creature at the center of the story is never directly refered to by this title, there is a point when Ann remarks “I must be under the spell of an April witch!”
I have never heard of this term used apart from this story, either before or after reading it. But as it is presented in the story itself, it seems as if April Witch is some fairly common term for some type of folklore creature like a boogeyman or a gremlin. Has anyone ever heard of an April Witch - outside of this story?