A Night of Reformation from Doorposts is a tool that truly will cause your family, homeschool group, neighborhood, or church to redeem the hideous theme of the usual holiday celebrated on October 31.

Oft-times church groups and homeschoolers look for ways not to celebrate halloween (lower case, intentional), or for some way to interject Christianity into the day, to offer an alternative to trick-or-treating, etc. I'm not convinced you can take the holy-day (aka holiday) celebrated by witches and pagans and turn it into anything. That's why Doorposts' A Night of Reformation is so different. Doorposts is not Christian-izing halloween. Doorposts is offering you a kit to celebrate another holiday: the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

When you say, "October 31st" to someone, they likely immediately envision halloween festivities. Yet, this is the day, in 1517, that Martin Luther tacked up his 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenburg. This is a turning point in history, but how many of us know the date, let alone celebrate it? Wonder how this date got trampled, and why it's nearly been forgotten?

A Night of Reformation not only remembers the date, it helps you celebrate it with everything from skits to games of "Hide the Heretic" to costumes. The typical Reformation Party is fun for all ages, incorporates food, drama, games, carnival booths, music, study projects, and crafts. There's something for everyone!

The three-ring binder is stuffed with 170 pages of resources, music, references, and ideas for celebrating the lives of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Martin Bucer. Let your party be as complicated or as simple as you like. Build a 16th century town. Costume the peasants. Issue papal indulgences. Display your own cache of relics. Write an essay on one of the reformers. Set up a marketplace. Learn to make yummy stained-glass "windows." Help Luther's future wife escape from her convent. Help Bucer negotiate peace between Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, the father of the Swiss reformation.

Here's another avenue for learning: what motivated these three men and others like them? Luther, for example, wasn't out to start a new church. He wanted to reform the erroneous teachings of the Catholic Church; thus, "reformer." A Night of Reformation is not a party to Catholic bashing, as some might wonder considering the topic. Reading through the curriculum/party planner did make me wonder what these men would think of modern American/Western Christianity. Would they see need to reform our churches? How would they, who sought to right wrongs, feel about our splintered and fragmented denominations? Would they find Protestants mired in their own dogma?

Of course, you can see room for varying the difficulty of the assignments and the elaborateness of the festivity. The binder includes complete plans for two different parties celebrating the life of Luther, one focusing on Calvin, and one on Bucer. Thankfully, A Night of Reformation is reproducible; I appreciate Pam and husband, John, for that blessing. The binder is just $20, and available through Doorposts, home of "Bible-based, parent-designed, family-tested products to help you apply Scripture in your home."