Reformation Festival

Halloween is not something the Mangos choose to celebrate. This year we had the opportunity to do something different. Some friends of ours were having a Reformation Party in honor of October 31st being the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door.

They had some stilts out for the children to play with. Mr. Boots did very well on them.

T-Bob stood around and was cold. It was very frigid that evening!

The boys checked out 'the door' with the Thesis printed out on it.

They listened attentively to our host.

Olivia, our host's youngest daughter, was dressed for the occasion. We all enjoyed the chili for supper, especially when it was such a chilly evening.

Our host gave a short history lesson and explained the significance of the evening. We also sang some hymns, including, of course, Martin Luther's famous 'A Mighty Fortress is Our God'. Being that our host is such a music guy, he had us sing it to a totally different tune than usual. We made it through.

Thomas and some of the rest of us snuck in the house for a bit to warm up.

The garage was the place to be, though. They had decorated it so nicely with Christmas lights and other things. The rest of the evening was spent in doing English country dancing. It was so fun to see the children enjoying being together and having fun. JoAn, Mr. Boots and Elizabeth had a good time dancing together. T-Bob didn't want to participate at all. Michelle and Thomas did join in.

The parents were the wall flowers. There was between 40-50 young people. There wasn't room for us more mature people. As it was the dances extended down the driveway quite a bit into the cold, dark, evening. It wasn't too bad as long as they kept moving.

Gabriel, one of the host's sons, was all gussied up.

Many of the guests came dressed in as close as they could get to period style clothing.


Here are JoAn and Mr. Boots dancing down the line. This really looked like fun!

Michelle and Thomas went swinging down the line as partners as well. It was a great evening. Not sure what Martin Luther would have thought, but we enjoyed it.

~Mom