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Holidays in Spain

Los festivos son sagrados – Holidays are sacred (We say that meaning that you don’t work on those days. And if we do it is reluctantly.)

National holidays in Spain

The 1st and the 6th of January are always holidays in Spain.
Good Friday is always holiday in Spain, but I never know when it is. It can be on March or on April. It is always one Friday, that’s for sure :). But we are always asking “¿Sabes cuando es semana santa este año?” – Do you know when is Easter this year?
15th of August is holiday.
15th of August is holiday.
12th of October is always holiday in Spain. We celebrate when Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus) discovered America for Europeans. We call it “Día de la hispanidad” – Hispanic Heritage Day.
1st of November is also holiday in Spain.
6th of December is holiday because it is Spanish Constitution Day.
8th of December is also Holiday. 6th, 7th and 8th is called in Spain “el puente de la constitución” (something like the constitution day long weekend), because many people don’t go to work on any of those days. It is easy that those days are before or after a weekend so they take a very very long weekend. Usually these people use those days to visit tourist places of Spain, so in those tourist places people work all those days included the weekend.
25th of December is Holiday in Spain. But this is not the traditional day to give Christmas season presents (although in recent years people algo give presents this day). The tradition is to give them the 6th of January, and we call it “día de reyes” (Three Kings Day). So we have “Los regalos de reyes” (The presents left by the three Kings) and we ask other people “¿Qué te trajeron los reyes?” (What presents did the three Kings bring you?) or “¿Tuviste reyes?” (Did you have Epiphany presents?) or “¿Te trajeron algo los reyes?” (Did the three Kings bring some present for you?) or even “¿Fueron buenos los reyes?” (Here we ask if the where good and so he left the wished presents, but … is not it supposed that we are who have to be good persons all year, not them one day?).

Special days that are not holidays

28 of December is “Día de los santos inocentes” (Holy Innocents’ Day) in Spain, but is is not a holiday. So if you work in Spain you’ll probably have to go to work on that day. This funny day of the year is the equivalent of “Fools Day” that celebrates on the 1st of April in Anglo-Saxon countries. Yes, we don’t celebrate it on the same day, but in my land, in Galicia, it is the same day. Here the 1st of April is “o día dos enganos (in Galician language)” (the day of tricks), and we say in Galician language “No primeiro de abril van os burros onde non deben ir“, that means On the first of April, the donkeys go where they shouldn’t go.

31st of December is not a holiday, but we have a special dinner, a party with family or with friends. It can be diferent from one autonomous community to another. Yes, that day everybody is in a hurry after work to prepare the party and get ready for the celebration.

“Puente” is when we have a long weekend. We say “tenemos puente” or “hacemos puente” (we say that when we tell another person that that day we don’t go to work or the company will close that day because we take a long weekend on that day).

Autonomous Communities holidays in spain

Autonomous Communities in Spain have their own holidays. The main one is the day of the corresponding autonomous Community. And they are not all in the same day, so if you you travel through Spain is good to know those holidays because those can be good days to visit those Autonomous Communities and enjoy any acts they celebrate.

Local holidays

Of course every local place like cities, towns and mainly councils have their own holidays. In the most important ones there will be music in the street, music orchestra that play some classic theme, some night band that plays more modern music and a place with carousels for children and also for those who are no longer children. It is a great opportunity to discover how the locals relate to each other and how they enjoy the holidays.

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