National Holidays in Spain

WORKERS in Spain enjoy 12 National Holidays, plus some extras depending on which Province, City, Town or Pueblo they live in.

Of the National Holidays, eight are religious holidays based on Catholicism which in today’s multi-cultural society may seem to be somewhat outdated.

Most European countries celebrate Easter and Christmas but for Spain to add the Three Kings, Assumption of Mary, All Saints Day, and the Immaculate Conception may appear to be somewhat unbalanced in what is heading towards being a secular society.

No-one (except perhaps some employers) wants to reduce the number of days people can take off but in a modern industrial country to then have additional days off for local Saints and to practice the concept of puente (bridge) to make an extra-long weekend can’t be beneficial to the economy.

The Spanish love to party and of course there is nothing wrong with that and they have now adopted Halloween so at least they can recover on All Saint’s Day!

This leads us to Christmas and in this time of ever-increasing costs as well as potential electricity shortages one must consider whether councils should put up their Christmas lights and if they do whether they should only keep them on for a limited number of hours each night.

Families are finding it difficult to cope yet many children now expect a Christmas present as well as one on Three Kings night and will be disappointed if they don’t receive both.

This year, as in the past, many charities and concerned individuals will be collecting toys for those children whose parents genuinely can’t afford them so please help if you can.