{"id":405,"date":"2010-10-14T10:19:59","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T10:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saints-hosting.org.uk\/sadfish\/visitgalicia\/?p=405"},"modified":"2010-10-14T10:27:13","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T10:27:13","slug":"always-time-for-a-spanish-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.visitgalicia.co.uk\/?p=405","title":{"rendered":"Always time for a Spanish holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colin Davies (Thoughts from Galicia)<\/a> blog\u00a0yesterday was all about\u00a0tuesdays\u00a0Spanish National day, a national \u00a0holiday across the whole of Spain where everything vaguely commercial grinds to a halt, families congregate, and parties are had across the land.\u00a0 As Colin points out, he is not sure if such a National Day exits anywhere else in the European Union, but it is certainly popular in Spain.<\/p>\n

There\u00a0isn’t a National Day\u00a0England where the closest thing we have is St Georges Day, celebrated by the sporadic unfurling of the flag of St George, and cheap beer promotions at any pub left open as the recession continues to close them at an astonishing rate. No one in England gets the day off for St Georges, and it’s even the case that some of the ‘political correctness’ brigade would like to see any recognition of the day stopped<\/a>\u00a0as it could be seen as racist. Imagine the reception that such a suggestion would get in Spain?<\/p>\n

The Spanish have overt national pride, but what they also have is a mass of public holidays which put our measly eight to shame. Every region of Spain has a maximum of fourteen public holidays, nine of which are national and the remaining five are regional. Galicia takes full advantage with its own fourteen, which\u00a0are;<\/p>\n

January 1<\/strong> – New Year’s Day (national holiday) – A\u00f1o Nuevo
\nJanuary 6<\/strong> – Epiphany – D\u00eda de Reyes\/Epifan\u00eda del Se\u00f1or
\nMarch 19<\/strong>– St. Joseph’s Day – San Jos\u00e9
\nMarch or April<\/strong> – Maundy Thursday – Jueves Santo
\nMarch or April<\/strong>– Good Friday (national holiday) – Viernes Santo
\nMay 1<\/strong> – Labour Day (national holiday) – D\u00eda del Trabajador
\nMay 17<\/strong> – Galician Literature Day – D\u00eda das Letras Galegas
\nJuly 25<\/strong> – Saint James. Galician National Day – Santiago Apostol. Dia da Patria Galega
\nAugust 15<\/strong> – Assumption (national holiday) – Asunci\u00f3n
\nOctober 12<\/strong>– Hispanic Day (national holiday) – D\u00eda de la Hispanidad\/Fiesta Nacional
\nNovember 1<\/strong> – All Saints Day (national holiday) – D\u00eda de todos los Santos
\nDecember 6<\/strong> – Constitution Day (national holiday) – D\u00eda de la Constituci\u00f3n
\nDecember 8<\/strong> – Immaculate Conception (national holiday) – Inmaculada Concepci\u00f3n\u00a0
\nDecember 25<\/strong> – Christmas Day (national holiday) – Navidad<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>But the festivities don’t usually stop there. Where these fall on a Tuesday or Thursday then the preceding Monday or following Friday are also seen as ‘fiesta’ days where people either take vacation days to make a long weekend or simply have a ‘duvet’ day.<\/p>\n

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Festival Celebrations<\/p><\/div>\n

On public holidays you can expect the following (taken from here<\/a>);<\/p>\n