What's a Red Letter day?

Instead of thinking about Red Letter Days or Bank Holidays in Spain, you have to consider working and non-working days. The non-working days, which are very similar to, but not the same as, British public or bank holidays, are set by three levels of government: town halls, regional governments, and the national government. This means that days off differ in every town and every region. Only the days designated by the central government are definitively the same throughout Spain. The only infallible way to know when there are holidays in your town is to consult the lists of "días no laborables" published by various sources, such as newspapers and chambers of commerce and easy to find with any search engine.

I've written similar pieces before. It's not an easy read but Alison asked me to do it again, so I'm going to try a different approach. I'm going to presume that you live in Spain, and I'll use six municipalities in three different regions as examples. It's a bit boring but if you can be bothered to compare the three sets of dates at the bottom of the page you'll see that there is a fair bit of variation and that's what catches people out or makes it seem as though Spain is always off work. I've used Pinoso and Sax in the Valencian Community, Jumilla and Abanilla in the Region of Murcia, and, in Castilla-La Mancha, Caudete and Fuente-Álamo. I chose these regions because they share borders.

There are a maximum of fourteen non-working days wherever you live in Spain. The national government lists, in the official state bulletin, up to nine non-working days - days on which people don’t have to work. The local town hall names two, and the regional government can name other days off to make up the shortfall. Generally the regional days come from a list, prepared by national government, of "suggested but substitutable" days. The suggestion is that days may be substituted because there is some strong local tradition to celebrate those days. Sometimes the regional days off can be a bit obscure. For instance, this year in the Valencian Community, 24th June was a regional non-working day, but if you chose not to work it, when your employer was open, then you had to make up your lost hours by doing extra hours on other working days.

The non-working days from the town halls apply only to the municipality. Remember that the municipality includes the satellite villages that "belong" to a town. It would be challenging to list all the pedanías; Abanilla, for instance, has over 20. But if you're in a village, whoever you pay your IBI (the local property tax) to will set your local holidays. Culebrón "belongs" to Pinoso, so we follow the local days set by Pinoso town hall. There are two days set by the local town hall in each municipality, which means that Pinoso, Sax, Jumilla, Abanilla, Caudete, and Fuente-Álamo, like every other town in Spain, close on days that have local significance. This can really catch you out if the day you choose to travel to some big shopping centre happens to be a local holiday in that town or city!

The non-working days from the regional government apply to the entire autonomous community/region. Each region has one day which celebrates its existence. It's a bit like the Welsh celebrating St David, The Irish St Patrick, the Scots St Andrew and the English St George. That aside the regional governments usually choose their days from the list of potential but substitutable days published by the national government each year. In some cases, all, or most, of the regional governments will choose the same days off from this list, so that a situation where say seven of the fifteen regions (Seventeen if you include the autonomous cities) will take the same day off. Three Kings. Epiphany, January 6th is an optional day, for instance, but all the regions in Spain always take it. With picking and choosing from this substitutable list there are often different non working days for the different regions. However, you can be sure that if it's a regional day off in Pinoso then it will also be a day off in Sax, because they are both in the Valencian Community. Meanwhile in Jumilla and Abanilla, and Caudete and Fuente-Álamo it depends whether they'll be working or not.

The non-working days set by the national government apply to the entire country, which means that all six of our towns will share the same days off work. These are the true "red letter" days.

If I've done well up to now, I think I've avoided saying "holiday"; I think I've used something like "day off work" or "non-working day." This is an important distinction from the idea of, say, a British public holiday. Spain is constitutionally a secular state. Supposedly, there is no link between the state and the church. Odd, then, that nearly all the days off are tied in with the Catholic calendar. Leaving that aside for the moment, I have it on good authority that on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work. To this day, Sunday in Spain is a day of rest - a non-working day. That doesn't mean that there aren't many people who work on Sundays, but it is, under some legal definition, a non-working day.

It’s very unusual for all fourteen days to fall on working days - from Monday to Saturday. Nearly always, one or two will fall on a Sunday, and if they are date-dependent holidays that fall on a Sunday, they will not be listed in the official calendars as days off. They don’t need to be because they are already non working days. That's why Easter Sunday and Mother's Day (First Sunday in May) are never in the lists.

Another difference from the British system is to do with fixed dates. There is a public holiday in the UK to coincide with the International Workers' Day on 1st May, but it’s not usually on 1st May; it’s on the first Monday in May. It moves to give people the day off. In Spain, Workers' Day is on 1st May, and it is celebrated on 1st May. The Spanish non working days are not shifted around to fall on a Monday, as they are in the UK. In Spain, if 1st May is a Sunday, it will be a day off work, but there is no need to add it as an additional day off work to the calendar because it is already a day off. If, by some Time Lord sort of miracle, all 14 days off were to fall on Sundays, Spaniards would not get a single extra day off work outside their contracted holiday. 

So, this year, 2024, the National Days were/are 1 January, New Year's Day; 29 March, Good Friday; 1 May, Labour Day; 15 August, Assumption of the Virgin; 12 October, Spanish National Day; 1 November, All Saints Day; 6 December, Spanish Constitution Day; 25 December, Christmas Day. The only "usual" day off that’s missing from that list is Immaculate Conception on 8th December because it’s a Sunday. However, if you notice in the substitutable list, they’ve added Monday, 9th December to make up for that.

For this year, 2024, the substitutable days - these are the ones that can be altered to fit in with local traditions or expectations by the Regional Government  - were/are 6 January, Epiphany; 19 March, St Joseph (Father's day); 28 March, Maundy Thursday; 25 July, St James the Apostle; 9 December, Monday after the Immaculate Conception.

The days chosen by the town halls can vary. I’ve added them to the lists below for the towns I chose. In Pinoso, the Monday after Easter Sunday was a day off, simply for local tradition, as was 8th August, which is the day of our patron saint. The other towns have similarly random explanations for their chosen dates. In some cases I had no idea why the towns take the day off.

One last thing: You will often hear Spaniards talking about puentes (bridges). This is where, by taking a day or two of your annual leave, you can get a block of time off that stretches over several days - you use leave days to make the bridge to the weekend.

So here're the lists

Castilla-La Mancha: 1 January, New Year's Day; 6 January, Epiphany; 28 March, Maundy Thursday; 29 March, Good Friday; 25 April, Local fiesta (Fuente Álamo); 30 May, Corpus Christi; 31 May, Day of Castilla-La Mancha; 1 May, Labour Day; 8 April, San Vicente (Caudete); 15 August, Assumption of the Virgin; 9 September, chosen by popular ballot! (Caudete); 12 October, Spanish National Day; 9 October, Local fiesta (Fuente Álamo); 1 November, All Saints Day; 6 December, Spanish Constitution Day; 25 December, Christmas Day.

Comunitat Valenciana: 1 January, New Year's Day; 6 January, Epiphany; 18 March, Puente for San José (Sax); 19 March, St Joseph's Day (Father's Day); 29 March, Good Friday; 1 April, Easter Monday; 8 April, San Vicente (Pinoso); 1 May, Labour Day; 24 June, St John's Day; 8 August, Patron Saint Day (Pinoso); 15 August, Assumption of the Virgin;  9 October, Valencian Community Day; 12 October, Spanish National Day; 1 November, All Saints Day; 6 December, Spanish Constitution Day; 25 December, Christmas Day; 26 December, Día del Cabildo (Sax).

Región de Murcia: 1 January, New Year's Day; 6 January, Epiphany; 19 March, St. Joseph's day (Father's Day); 28 March, Maundy Thursday; 29 March, Good Friday; 1 April 2024, Easter Monday (Jumilla); 1 May, Labour Day; 2 May, Local Holiday (Abanilla); 3 May, Local Holiday (Abanilla); 15 August, Assumption of the Virgin; 12 October, Spanish National Day; 1 November, All Saints Day; 6 December, Spanish Constitution Day; 9 December, following the Immaculate Conception; 25 December, Christmas Day; 26 December, Fiesta Local (Jumilla). NOTICE that the 9th June, the Regional Holiday, isn't in the list because it's on a Sunday

Take the day off

One of the many complaints that Britons level against Spain is that Spaniards have lots and lots of days off, festive days. The implication is clear. In fact there can be up to fourteen days off in Spain. In England, unless there are additions for some particular event, the usual ration is eight days. It's very seldom that Spaniards get all fourteen days though. This year, 2023, there will be 12 and sometimes the number drops to 10. 

That's because there is a slight, but important, difference in the thinking behind public holidays in the two countries. In one the idea is of a holiday entitlement and in the other the idea is that there should be a rest from work on a festive day. In England, each year, you get eight extra days holiday, on top of any work related holiday entitlement. If a public holiday happens to fall on a Saturday or Sunday then you will get the previous or the next working day off as a substitute. In Spain if the festive day falls on Saturday or Sunday then it simply disappears from the annual holiday calendar because work won't get in the way of you celebrating that day.

So, why is it that there seem to be public holidays all the time in Spain if the real difference is just a couple of days? One of the reasons is for the way that the Spanish territory is organised. We need to remember that Spain, the state, is made up of regions and municipalities. All three of those entities affect the holiday calendar. The state can set up to nine days of public holiday, the regions set three and the municipalities, two.

We'll get to the national holidays in a while but let's start with the municipal, the local, days off. Pinoso (the picture is the Pinoso flag) is a good example. It borders five other municipalities (Yecla, Jumilla, Abanilla, Algueña and Monóvar). All six of those municipalities get to choose two local holidays, nearly always based on some local tradition. It's more than likely that when Pinoso has a day off the other five won't. When people hardly ever left their home town this was hardly a problem but, nowadays, we often cross municipal borders to go to work, to use a gym or to do the supermarket run. That being the case you can easily find yourself caught out and come to the conclusion that Spain is always closed.

Now to the regional days off. Three of the municipalities bordering Pinoso are in the Region of Murcia. Each region has a regional day and each one is different. So when Valencia celebrates the anniversary of the taking of Valencia city from the Moors in 1238, on 9 October by Jaume I, Murcia will be hard at work. On June 9 on the other hand the Murcianos may well be wearing alpargatas and zaragüelles to dance in the street to celebrate the adoption of their most recent boundary changes while we Valencianos grind through the daily routine. 

Another regional variation comes from the so called replaceable days. To get to these we need to talk about the national holiday calendar, días no laborables. Central government produces an annual list of public holidays. There can be up to nine. New Year's day, Good Friday, Labour Day (May 1st ), Assumption Day (August 15th), National Day of Spain (October 12th), All Saints Day (November 1st), Constitution Day, (December 6th), Immaculate Conception (December 8th) and Christmas Day (December 25th). If any of those dates falls on a Sunday they will not be included in the list for the year. As well as these days the government publishes, each year, a list of suggested days for public holidays. Remembering that regional governments can set up to three days off the regions may adopt some or all of these replaceable days. If they wish they can make regional substitutions. When different regions make different replacements this causes another variation. To give a concrete example one of the  replaceable days suggested by the national government is the Thursday of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday in old money (see the quip?). The Murcia Region likes that and takes the Thursday. On the other hand the Valencian Community has a tradition of celebrating the Monday of Holy Week instead. Murcia's plan produces a long weekend before Holy Week and Valencia's a long weekend after Holy week, a Monday off that Britons often, wrongly, confuse with the English Easter Monday.

The days on that replaceable or changeable list always include January 6th, Epiphany, the day after the Three Kings bring Christmas gifts for children in Spain, the Thursday before Easter Sunday and San José or Fathers Day on March 19th. There are usually a couple of other suggestions which vary from year to year. None of those days will be a Sunday. That doesn't mean that some Sundays will not be celebrated as festive days. Easter Sunday is, a good example, as is Mother's Day which is always the first Sunday in May. Both are recognised festive days, in the same way as they are in England but none of them need to feature on workday calendars as Sunday is always a day off. 

It's a system that lots of Britons find hard to get to grips with while Spaniards like the way it honours local differences and traditions.