Buß- und Bettag
Protestant holiday in Germany
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Key Takeaways
- Buß- und Bettag (Repentance and Prayer Day) was a public holiday in Germany, and is still a public holiday in Saxony.
- It is now celebrated on the penultimate Wednesday before the beginning of the Protestant liturgical year on the first Sunday of Advent; in other words, it is the Wednesday that falls between 16 and 22 November.
- In the Free State of Bavaria, it is a school holiday only.
Buß- und Bettag (Repentance and Prayer Day) was a public holiday in Germany, and is still a public holiday in Saxony. In Germany, Protestant church bodies of Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United denominations celebrate a day of repentance and prayer. It is now celebrated on the penultimate Wednesday before the beginning of the Protestant liturgical year on the first Sunday of Advent; in other words, it is the Wednesday that falls between 16 and 22 November. However, it is not a statutory non-working holiday any more, except in the Free State of Saxony. In the Free State of Bavaria, it is a school holiday only.
Meaning and origin
The tradition of repentance and prayer is rooted in the Book of Jonah of the Bible, where God sends out the prophet Jonah (יוֹנָה) in order to announce to the inhabitants of Nineveh that God is to overthrow the city (Book of Jonah 3:4–10):
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