Cause to Celebrate

I'm still getting used to the holiday system in Germany.

Well, to be fair, I had gotten it pretty well down in Hamburg, then we moved here. Each state in Germany can determine its holidays and, being a largely Catholic state, Bavaria has many more than what I'm used to.

Poster in the window of a nearby Euro store

But today is a national holiday in Germany. And not because it's Halloween.

Although each year I see more decorations available in the stores over here, costumes for kids and adults focus on the traditional, scary Halloween memes, and trick-or-treating is rare. Also, while Halloween is a big enterprise in the U.S., it's not even an official holiday at home.

Pastries in a local bakery this morning
included these cute vampire pumpkins (?)

No, today's holiday marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation (normally it's only celebrated in the highly Protestant areas in north/eastern Germany).

And tomorrow is another holiday here in Bavaria: All Saints Day.

I'm in the Halloween-has-pagan-origins camp, so I find it amusing that these different celebrations are colliding over this two-day period.

Growing up, I went to Sunday school and vacation Bible school and sang in the church choir. These days, I may not practice a particular religion or Christian sect, but I find their departures of belief fascinating.

Each holiday here offers an opportunity for educating myself further, and naturally I've been seeing a lot about Martin Luther leading up to today. Being me, of course I'm much more interested in the quirky stories.

Speaking of quirky, this Martin Luther
bobblehead on eBay was apparently a
Milwaukee Admirals hockey game
giveaway, and listed as a "Great
way to celebrate the 500th anniversary
of the Reformation!!!" Wow.

I found this list by The Local--12 Surprising Facts You Didn't Know About Martin Luther--to be the best balance of talking about his impact, and his humanity.

And while I'm not going to do a deep-dive into the world of beatification tomorrow, I am going to explore a bit what All Saints Day means here in Bavaria.

From the blog Catholic Icing. Nuff said.

So whatever your holiday inclination this week--affirm, exalt, invoke, or indulge--be sure to enjoy yourself. 

Then rest up, because it's only 24 days till Black Friday and 55 days till Christmas...