10. It happens every year on October 31st.
9. The most exciting and historically significant one happened in 1517!
8. A monk named Martin Luther (no, he is not related to Martin Luther King) was upset with the Roman Catholic Church for its abuse of power and unbiblical teachings. (Everyone was Catholic whether they liked it or not back then.)
7. He wrote up 95 complaints and nailed them to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, on Halloween knowing that hundreds of parishioners were going to attend mass that evening in preparation for All Saints Day on Nov. 1. (And he didn’t bother wearing a costume for the event.)
6. Martin Luther’s list consisted of some very radical ideas such as: “No, you don’t have to pay money to be forgiven”; and “No, there is no such place as Purgatory in case you don’t have enough money to be forgiven”; and “No, good works won’t get you into Heaven.”
5. His Halloween adventure turned the European world upside down. The recent invention of the printing press allowed his ideas to be translated into German, the language of the common people, and they quickly spread around Europe.
4. He was considered such a threat that he was tried as a heretic for his beliefs (had a face-off with all the major power players in the Catholic Church.)
3. He sparked a movement called “the Reformation” that saw Christians breaking away from the Catholic Church to begin new churches and Christian communities. The Roman Catholic Church, in response, cleaned house by starting “the Counter Reformation.”
2. Luther spent the rest of his life translating the Bible from Latin into German so that everyone could read the Bible and discover its truths (plus wrote a bunch of great hymns.)
1. Oh right! Halloween is also a great opportunity to dress up in interesting costumes and collect candy! (I think a monk’s costume would be a most suitable!)