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Ordinary Time
Reformation Day / Reformation Sunday
Also called: Reformationstag (German), Day of the Reformation
October 31 (Reformation Day); Sunday nearest October 31 (Reformation Sunday)
LutheranPresbyterianAnglican
On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 complaints about the church to a door in Germany — and accidentally started one of the biggest religious upheavals in history. Lutherans and many Protestants still celebrate Reformation Day with red vestments, Luther hymns, and thanksgiving for the Bible in ordinary language.
It shares a date with Halloween, but the focus is church history, not ghosts. Eden lists tours along the Reformation trail in Germany.
At a glance
- Type
- commemoration
- Date type
- Semi-fixed
- Regions
- Global
- Themes
- Church History
- Liturgical colour
- Red
Common questions
Reformation Day is observed on October 31 (Reformation Day); Sunday nearest October 31 (Reformation Sunday). Moveable feasts shift each year; fixed feasts stay on the same calendar date.
The remembrance of Martin Luther's posting of the Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517 — the event traditionally regarded as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The church calendar color is red (for the Holy Spirit and the Word of God). A public holiday in several German states. The 500th anniversary (2017) was celebrated worldwide. Lutherans
It is associated with Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anglican. It falls in the Ordinary Time season of the liturgical year.