Pumpking carving and adventures to Wittenberg in celebration of Halloween — oops, I mean Reformation Day.
Hope everybody had a great Halloween! We celebrated over the weekend by watching scary movies and carving pumpkins…spoooooky.
Autumn in Germany is crazy beautiful. Even the vendors at the city markets are getting into the seasonal spirit, putting up strings of decorative leaves. Unless those are actual leaves, blown in by the wind. It can be hard to tell during autumn.
Wreaths for sale in the old city market.
I know I’ve been posting a lot of photos of the local trees, so I promise this will be my last picture of beautiful autumn colors around town. (Just kidding. I’ll never stop taking pics of this foliage.)
For those keeping score at home — can you spot the Cottbus Crayfish scaling the painting on the back building?
October 31 was officially Reformation Day, recognizing the time that some guy named Martin Luther nailed a few theses to his local church…way back in 1517. I heard a rumor that it made a bit of an impact back in the day. What a rabblerouser, right?
Reformation Day is a holiday throughout the state of Brandenburg, including here in Cottbus. Everything in town was closed for the day, so several of us journeyed to the nearby(ish) city of Wittenburg.
What’s so special about Wittenburg? you may ask. Well, it just so happens to be the city where the aforementioned theses nailing took place. The city has a big celebration every October 31, including a parade led by Mr. Martin himself.
Misty view of the church tower.
Many people were dressed up as Renaissance faire outfits, posing for photos and confronting Martin when they passed him in the street.
Note the door behind that group. I’m forced to conclude that it’s not the original door where he nailed up the theses, since…
- This door is metal, which is probably not conducive to amateur woodworking
- The theses are printed on it
The local Druid camp, and various other ye olde sights from the day.
Great job carving the pumpkin’s eyes. Love seeing it all lit up.
Your photos really capture the moment.
A student at painting class mentioned that Wittenberg is planning a huge celebration next year commemorating 500 years since Martin Luther’s demonstration.
That lovely fox stole would fit in nicely.
The wreaths are beautiful. You’ll love all the Christmas decorations next month.
Next year is definitely going to be a big celebration! All the flyers and promo materials in Wittenberg had “2017 — 500 Jahre!” printed on them. And apparently the entire country is going to have Oct 31, 2017 as a holiday.