Reformation Day

The Latin tradition of Christianity split into various Christian churches and communities in the early modern period as a result of reformatory movements in the so-called confessional age.

Protestants, i.e., Evangelical-Lutheran, Evangelical-Reformed, or Evangelical-Free Church Christians, see the eve of the feast of All Saints in 1517 as the ‘birth’ of the Protestant churches in Germany when the reformer Martin Luther is said to have posted his 95 theses on the reform of the church on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Following the anniversaries of this event in 1617 and 1717, a Reformation festival was celebrated in many Protestant communities. Today it is a public holiday in several German states—for example, in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and Thuringia.

In various Catholic communities, younger children in particular—in the tradition of Irish Catholicism—celebrate the eve of ‘All Hallow's Eve’ as a Halloween festival by going from house to house dressed up and asking for sweets. Although originally a Catholic custom, ‘Halloween’ is now predominantly seen as a secular fashion, which is fuelled by the retail trade with corresponding offers of sweet goods.