Official memorial day since 1667
Reformation Day has been an official day of remembrance since 1667. With his decree, Elector George II of Saxony also ensured that the date was standardized on October 31st. Previously, the dates of the individual regional churches differed.
In Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia but also in Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, Reformation Day is a public holiday. Outside Germany, it is also celebrated in Slovenia and Chile. In Switzerland, the Reformed churches celebrate Reformation Sunday on the first Sunday after October 31st.
Festival and church services in Wittenberg, Eisleben or Magdeburg
In Wittenberg there is traditionally a Reformation festival with various events: a celebratory service and a celebratory concert in the town church, various guided tours, as well as the historical market spectacle in the squares and courtyards of Wittenberg’s old town are among the highlights of this day.
In a park on the Bunkerberg in the immediate vicinity of the Luther House there is an art installation called “Wittenberg Sound Theses” to make Martin Luther’s 95 theses heard. In the Luther town of Eisleben there is a festive service on Reformation Day in the Church of St. Andreas. A lecture is planned in Luther’s death house under the title “Sung Faith – 500 Years of Protestant Hymn Books”.
