Public holidays in Spain explained

Public holidays celebrated in Spain include a mix of religious (Roman Catholic), national and regional observances. Each municipality is allowed to have a maximum of 14 public holidays per year; a maximum of nine of these are chosen by the national government and at least two are chosen locally, including patronal festivals.

If one of the "national holidays" happens to fall on a Sunday the regional governments - the autonomous communities of Spain - can choose an alternate holiday or they can allow local authorities to choose. In practice, except for holidays falling on a Sunday, the regional governments can choose up to three holidays per year; or they can choose fewer to allow for more options at the local level.

Since 2010, Ceuta and Melilla, both autonomous cities of Spain, have declared the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice, as an official public holiday. It was the first time a non-Christian religious festival has been officially celebrated in Spain since the Reconquista.^{[1] [2] [3]}

When a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday. some workers take a day off (the Monday or the Friday) to make a four-day long weekend known as a es-ES|[[puente (holiday)|puente]] ("bridge").

Spanish holidays 2023

The following table lists the holidays for the year 2023:^[4]

				Autonomous communities																	Autonomous cities
Date	English name	Native name	Notes
1 January		Año Nuevo	It is not a public holiday in 2023 because it is Sunday.
2 January	Monday following New Year's Day	Lunes siguiente a Año Nuevo
6 January	Epiphany	Epifanía del Señor
21 February	Shrove Tuesday	Martes de Carnaval
28 February	Andalusia Day	Día de Andalucía
1 March	Day of the Balearic Islands	Dia de las Islas Baleares
20 March	Monday following St. Joseph's Day	Lunes siguiente a San José^[5]
6 April	Maundy Thursday	Jueves Santo
7 April		Viernes Santo
10 April		Lunes de Pascua
21 April	Eid al-Fitr	Ruptura del Ayuno
23 April	Aragon and Castilla y León National Day
1 May		Día del Trabajador
2 May	Madrid Day
17 May		Día de las Letras Gallegas
30 May		Día de Canarias
31 May	Castilla-La Mancha Day	Día de Castilla-La Mancha
8 June	Feast of Corpus Christi	Corpus Christi
9 June	Regional Day	Día de la Región de Murcia	Statute-of-Autonomy commemoration
		Día de La Rioja
13 June		San Antonio
24 June		San Juan
25 July	Galician National Day	Santiago Apóstol o Día da Patria Galega
28 July	Cantabria Institutions Day	Día de las Instituciones de Cantabria
5 August	Santa Maria of Africa	Santa María de África
15 August		Asunción
16 August	San Roque	San Roque
22 August		Celebración del Sacrificio	Variable Islamic
2 September		Día de Ceuta
8 September	Regional Day	Día de Asturias
		Día de Extremadura
11 September		Diada Nacional de Catalunya	Historical account
15 September	Our Lady of the “Bien Aparecida”	La Bien Aparecida	Customs-and-traditions exaltation
17 September	Municipal Day	Día de Melilla	Historical account
9 October	Day of the Valencian Community	Dia de la Comunitat Valenciana
12 October		Fiesta Nacional de España
25 October	Basque National Day	Euskadi Eguna^[6]	Statute-of-Autonomy commemoration
1 November		Día de todos los Santos
6 December		Dia de la Constitucion Espanola
8 December		Inmaculada Concepción
20 December	Aragon Ombudsman Day	Día del Justicia de Aragón^[7]	Tribute to the historical figure of Juan de Lanuza y Urrea, who was beheaded for defending the rights and freedoms of the Aragonese people
25 December		Navidad
26 December		Sant Esteve
Total holidays				12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	16	14

External links

• National and regional holidays in Spain from an expatriate perspective
• Madrid Public holidays National & regional
• Public Holidays in Barcelona
• Public Holidays in Spain 2020

Notes and References

1. Web site: Muslim Holiday in Ceuta and Melilla . Spainforvisitors.com . 2011-09-03 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110929161344/http://spainforvisitors.com/module-News-display-sid-310.htm . 2011-09-29 .
2. Web site: Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Spain . Qppstudio.net . 2011-09-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110930174912/http://www.qppstudio.net/bankholidays2010/spain.htm . 2011-09-30 . dead .
3. Web site: La fiesta grande de los musulmanes, oficial por primera vez en España - España - elmundo.es. Unidad Editorial. Internet. www.elmundo.es.
4. Web site: Calendario de fiestas laborales estatal, comunidades autónomas y fiestas locales. El. CEF. www.laboral-social.com/.
5. Web site: El Mundo . Este año San José es sólo festivo en la Comunidad Valenciana y Murcia | España . 19 March 2018 . Elmundo.es . 2020-01-21.
6. Web site: La fiesta del Día de Euskadi nace con división. El Correo. El. Correo. www.elcorreodigital.com. 5 December 2009 .
7. Web site: El Justicia conmemora este jueves el 427 aniversario de la ejecución de Juan de Lanuza V. El Heraldo de Aragón. El. Heraldo de Aragón. www.heraldo.es.