Best Festivals and holidays Spain 2014

Best Festivals and holidays Spain 2014

Traditionally, most holidays in Spain have been religious in origin. At the national level the most important of these are Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Corpus Christi, the Feast of Saint James (July 25), and All Saints’ Day (November 1). The most important day of the Christmas period, and the day on which children receive presents, is the Day of the Three Kings, or Epiphany (January 6).

By contrast, nonreligious, civic holidays have been relatively insignificant. The Franco regime declared July 18, the day on which the Spanish Civil War began, a national holiday, but that was abandoned after the demise of the regime. Since 1978 the official national holiday has been Constitution Day (December 6). Catalonia and the Basque Country have their own official “national” holidays, and each of the autonomous communities celebrates itself with a regional holiday.

One important holiday is both religious and civic. October 12 is the Day of the Virgin of El Pilar and also the day on which the “discovery” of America is celebrated (a counterpart to the celebration of Columbus Day in the United States); it has been called at different times the Day.