Wednesday before Totensonntag Buss- und Bettag - Day of Repentance and Prayer (official holiday)
Buss- und Bettag (Day of Repentance and Prayer), is observed on the Wednesday before Totensonntag (Sunday of the Dead). A day for fasting, contemplation and examining one's conscience, it is a federal holiday in all German states, except predominantly Catholic Bavaria, since 1892. In recent years, many Christian congregations have organized ecumenical church services on this day. A Protestant Holy Day, it was first celebrated in Strassburg in 1532. Catholic days of repentance and prayer are all Fridays, Ash Wednesday, the Quatember weeks, and the Bittwoche, the 7 days before Christi Himmelfahrt (the Day of Christ's Ascension).
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