Yesterday I heard about a "Reformation Day Festival" that you will love to know about.

Did you know that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the cathedral door in Wittemburg on October 31, 1517?

A lot of Christians object to Halloween as a holiday because of its history. Halloween was an old Druid celebration. It occurred the day before (the "eve" of) All Saints Day (All Hallow's Day) and was therefore known as All Hallow's Eve and later shortened to Halloween. Like Mardi Gras it was a chance to practice evil just before a major holy day. (Mardi Gras is "Fat Tuesday," and it occurs the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.)

I won't go into all the traditions and history of Halloween. I just want to point out that some Christians, because of the date of Martin Luther's theses, have chosen to call October 31 "Reformation Day."

These Christians have a festival and play in Cincinnati. It happens on October 30 this year because October 31 falls on a Wednesday. The festival would interfere with a lot of other church activites if it were actually held on the 31st.

All the information is at http://www.tylerinternet.com.

It's only two hours, but between the Reformation play, the booths and displays, and the opportunity to meet people I am considering driving the 8 hours to Cincinnati next week. That's despite the fact that I've been in the hospital since yesterday due to a blood clot in my leg. (Otherwise my recovery has been going very well; thank you again for all of your prayers.)

I don't know where any of the recipients of this newsletter live, but I thought that if I am willing to drive 8 hours to attend the Reformation Day Festival, some of you might be willing to drive that much. In fact, some of you will be closer to Cincinnati than I am.

To close, the reason I found out about Reformation Day is that they asked to use my page on the Diet of Worms--Martin Luther's ecclesiastical trial--as a poster at the festival. I'm very honored.

I have no financial stake in the Reformation Day Festival. I am not being paid for the use of my web page except by acknowledgement on the poster. I am only telling you about this because it looks like great education and great fun.

I have several pages at Christian-history.org that thoroughly discuss the life of Martin Luther. You can get to all of them, including the Diet of Worms page, from:

https://www.christian-history.org/martin-luther.html

The grace of God and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.