Overview
- Reformation Day on Friday, Oct. 31, is a statutory holiday in Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg‑Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony‑Anhalt, Schleswig‑Holstein and Thuringia.
- Bavaria, Baden‑Württemberg, Berlin, Hesse, North Rhine‑Westphalia, Rhineland‑Palatinate and Saarland observe a normal workday; most of them mark All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1, but Hesse does not.
- The four northern states made Oct. 31 a permanent holiday in 2018 after the nationwide one‑off in 2017, with Lower Saxony’s parliament amending its holiday law on June 22, 2018.
- Saxony’s Protestant church has scheduled festival services and concerts, including the Dresden Kreuzchor in the Kreuzkirche and a Bach Marathon in Leipzig’s Thomaskirche.
- Public discussion intensifies as CDU MP Gitta Connemann proposes scrapping the holiday, church representatives defend its civic value, and scholars point to Halloween’s growing pull on the same date.