Where is Reformation Day 2024 on October 31st a public holiday?

Reformation Day 2024 is a public holiday in most federal states – but not in all of them. Where is free everywhere on October 31st?

Here you will find information about Reformation Day 2024. We also explain what the meaning behind it is and why it is celebrated on this exact date.

Date: When is Reformation Day 2024?

Reformation Day has the date October 31st every year – in 2024 it falls on a Thursday. By the way, Halloween is on the same day.

Federal states: Where is Reformation Day a public holiday?

Reformation Day 2024 is a public holiday in nine federal states in the north and east of Germany. You can see which federal states these are in our overview:

• Brandenburg
• Bremen
• Hamburg
• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• Lower Saxony
• Saxony
• Saxony-Anhalt
• Schleswig-Holstein
• Thuringia

So in these federal states people have time off. In Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, Reformation Day has only been a regular holiday since 2018.

Meaning: Why is Reformation Day celebrated on October 31, 2024?

According to tradition, on October 31, 1517, the monk and theology professor Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. Luther criticized the view that man could only be saved from sin through good works and the payment of indulgences. This had already happened through Jesus’ death on the cross, he argued.

Reformation Day: It was only a public holiday once in all federal states

The 95 theses on indulgences that Martin Luther spread in 1517 had lasting consequences: he initiated the reformation of the church – the Protestant church emerged alongside the Catholic church.

On the 500th anniversary of the event, Reformation Day 2017 was, exceptionally, a national holiday. But the joy of the additional day off only lasted for a short time in some federal states such as Bavaria. However, Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein introduced Reformation Day as a new, regular holiday in 2018. Since then it has been valid in nine federal states.

In Bavaria you shouldn’t have celebrated for too long in the evening – Halloween – anyway: All Saints’ Day on November 1st is a quiet day with a ban on dancing in Bavaria.