All Saints' Church, Wittenberg

While the old festivals faded in parts of Europe, a new kind of observance arose among Protestants.

Reformation Day, celebrated on, you guessed it, October 31st, but not because of Samhain, but because that specific day marks the very day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church in Germany.

This act challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, especially its sale of indulgences, and ignited what would become the Protestant Reformation.

For Protestants, this day came to represent a spiritual awakening, a call to return to Scripture as the sole authority for faith and practice.

Well, it got a lot bigger than that, no doubt.

And then also on this day in history in the year 1517, Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany, went and nailed up his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, the Castle Church, as it's known, and of course started what became known as the Protestant Reformation.

That all happened in 1517.

It probably wasn't until, I think, many years later, 1529, when we start to hear this term, the actual term Protestant.

This October 31st, 2026 marks the 509th anniversary.

since the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, which is largely considered to have started on October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Saxony, in what is modern-day Germany.

In addition to Martin Luther, other reformers include John Calvin, John Knox, Ulrich Zwingli, William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer, and others, but also preceded by men like John Wycliffe and John Hus, which is how you pronounce his last name, right? Hus? Hus? Hus? I always hear it done different ways.

The Reformation challenged the corruption and excesses of the medieval Roman Catholicism and restored the central truths of the Bible, especially what are considered to be the five solas of the Protestant Reformation.

Why should you dress your children up in a disguise and go knocking on the door? You don't know who's behind that door.

And the reason the devil wants this day so big now Because he wants to make you ignore what happened at Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31st of 1517.

Because the reality is, reformation is what's needed.

And ironic, much of what we just talked about, especially the purgatory and the indulgences part, which I didn't get into indulgences, that's what Martin Luther was protesting.