Reformation Day - October 31 in five German states, the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door

Reformation Day on October 31 commemorates the start of the Protestant Reformation in 1517. In Germany it is a public holiday only in five Länder, all historically Lutheran. In Switzerland it is a cantonal public holiday. Elsewhere it is observed as a religious feast by Lutheran and Reformed churches.

In one paragraph

Reformation Day on October 31 is the Christian feast that commemorates Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church in 1517, the symbolic start of the Protestant Reformation. It is a public holiday in five German Lander (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia), in several Swiss cantons, and in Slovenia. In the rest of Germany it is a religious observance but not a paid day off.

Luther's life and theology before 1517

Martin Luther was born in 1483 in Eisleben, Saxony, the son of a mining family. After studies at Erfurt, he entered an Augustinian monastery in 1505 and was ordained a priest in 1507. He became a professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg in 1512 and over the following years developed what he later described as a "tower experience" — the realization that the sinner is justified by faith alone (sola fide), not by works or purchased indulgences. By 1517 Luther had become increasingly alarmed by the sale of indulgences, particularly the indulgence campaign led by the Dominican friar Johann Tetzel to fund the rebuilding of St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

The 95 Theses

The Theses were written in Latin and addressed to the local bishop, but Luther followed academic convention by also posting them on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, which served as a public notice board for university events. The text was a series of propositions calling for a disputation on the practice of indulgences; the first Thesis famously declared that "our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said 'Repent', willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance." Luther objected not to indulgences as such but to the implication that they could replace inner contrition, and to the preaching of the indulgence trade by friars like Tetzel.

The Theses were translated into German within two weeks and circulated across the Empire. Within a month they had reached Rome; by spring 1518 Luther was summoned to Augsburg to answer for his writings; in 1520 he published three of his most influential works — An Appeal to the German Nobility, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and The Freedom of a Christian; in January 1521 he was excommunicated by Pope Leo X. In April 1521 Luther stood before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms and refused to recant, ending with the words "Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen."

The spread of the Reformation

The Reformation spread across northern Europe through the printing press, the vernacular translation of the Bible (Luther's German New Testament appeared in 1522, the complete Bible in 1534), and the support of secular rulers who saw in the religious dispute a chance to consolidate political independence from Rome. Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Anabaptist movements took shape in different cities. The Augsburg Confession of 1530, drafted by Luther's colleague Philip Melanchthon, became the foundational confession of Lutheranism. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 established the principle of cuius regio, eius religio — the religion of the ruler determined the religion of the realm — and effectively made the religious division of Europe permanent.

The Reformation's later political phase ended in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which devastated Germany and concluded with the Peace of Westphalia. The 500th anniversary in 2017 was the most publicly marked Reformation milestone in modern times.

Wittenberg and the Schlosskirche today

The Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Wittenberg still stands. The original wooden door burned in the Seven Years' War (1760) and was replaced in 1858 with a bronze door bearing Luther's text in Latin. The church and the adjacent Luther House (a former Augustinian monastery, now a museum) are inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites under the title "Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg." Wittenberg receives roughly half a million visitors a year, most concentrated around Reformation Day.

The 95 Theses and the start of the Reformation

On October 31, 1517, the Augustinian friar and theology professor Martin Luther posted (and sent copies of) his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Saxony. The Theses were a Latin critique of the Catholic indulgence trade — the practice by which the faithful could purchase remission of temporal punishment for sins — and called for a theological disputation. Although the posting was normal academic practice of the era, the Theses were quickly printed and distributed across Germany; by 1521 Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X and declared an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms. The dispute escalated into the Protestant Reformation, the eventual split of Western Christianity into Catholic and Protestant traditions, and the formation of Lutheran and Reformed churches across northern Europe.

Date variations and observances

Reformation Day is fixed at October 31 each year. It is observed as a public holiday in the five eastern and northern German Länder listed above. In these states schools, banks, and most government offices close. Across the rest of Germany (Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein) it is not a paid public holiday. Some employers grant a "Reformationstag" off by practice, especially in mixed-confession cities.

How the day is celebrated

Reformation Day is observed in the five German Lander with church services, civic ceremonies, and school commemorations. The Lutherstadt Wittenberg holds a major Reformation-themed day with services at the Schlosskirche (Castle Church), where the Theses were posted. Evangelical (Lutheran and Reformed) congregations in Germany hold the day as one of the most significant liturgical commemorations of the year. Public lectures, museum exhibitions (Luther House Wittenberg), and televised services from Wittenberg are the main media events. Berlin, where Luther is widely associated as the city's Reformation figurehead, has grown an unofficial celebration despite the day's statutory holiday status not applying within the city-state.

Legal status and exception years

Reformation Day is established as a public holiday in the five German Lander under their respective state holiday laws. The most notable exception is 2017, when the Bundestag declared October 31, 2017 a one-off nationwide public holiday to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation — only the 500th-anniversary single year has universal application. In most other years, federal employees in non-holiday states follow the federal holiday schedule (which excludes October 31).

The 2017 anniversary

The 500th anniversary in 2017 was the largest commemoration of any Reformation event in modern history. The German Bundestag voted unanimously on a one-time nationwide public holiday for October 31, 2017. Wittenberg hosted a three-day festival attended by heads of state including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, and by delegations from Lutheran churches worldwide. Pope Francis visited Lund, Sweden, on October 31, 2017, to jointly commemorate the Reformation with the Lutheran World Federation — the first papal visit to a Lutheran commemoration. The anniversary was accompanied by a public Reformation exhibition and a televised ecumenical service from Wittenberg.

Modern ecumenical significance

The Reformation is no longer principally a polemical anniversary. Catholic-Lutheran dialogue has produced several major joint statements since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), including the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, signed by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation, which resolved the original 16th-century doctrinal conflict at the heart of the 95 Theses. Reformation Day is therefore observed by Lutherans worldwide as much as an occasion for ecumenical reflection as for denominational celebration. In Germany the day is also used to highlight Protestant social ethics (the Diakonie welfare tradition) and the historical contribution of the Reformation to concepts of individual conscience, public education, and translation of scripture into the vernacular.

Where it is contested

Reformation Day's status is contested in mixed-confession Lander, where some argue that the day privileges the Lutheran tradition and creates asymmetric paid-leave arrangements. Catholic and Reformed (non-Lutheran) communities in the same states may celebrate the day liturgically without recognising it as a public day off. Some lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein commentators have called for extending the holiday statewide, citing the link to the Lutheran Reformation as historical and cultural rather than purely religious. The day is widely supported in the five eastern Lander where the post-1990 reconstruction period reasserted the holiday.

Observance beyond Germany

Reformation Day is a public holiday in Slovenia (October 31 is officially Reformation Day, or Dan reformacije) and in several Swiss cantons including Geneva, Vaud, Neuchatel, and Jura. In Scandinavia, Reformation Day was historically public in Sweden on the Saturday between October 31 and November 6, until 1772; in Finland it was public until 1919. In the United States and the United Kingdom, Reformation Day is observed by Lutheran and Reformed congregations as a religious feast, often by special sermons on the 95 Theses; it is not a public holiday.

Reformation Day by the numbers

Sources

• Landesgesetz/Feiertagsgesetz of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia (German state primary legislation).
• Wikipedia, "Reformation Day" and "Martin Luther."
• Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) liturgical calendar.
• UNESCO Wittenberg Luther Memorials listing.
• Bundestag 2017 anniversary decree (Beschluss des Deutschen Bundestages).
• Catholic-Lutheran Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999).