TWELVE bank holidays fall on working days in 2016, of which eight are national, according to the official calendar published today by the General Directorate of Employment.
Seven public holidays are non-negotiable and cannot be moved to another date or replaced – one of these being yesterday, New Year's Day.
The others are Good Friday, All Saints' Day on November 1, Constitution Day and Immaculate Conception Day on December 6 and 8, Assumption of the Virgin Day on August 15, and Spain National Day on October 12, which used to be a public holiday to mark the conquering of the Americas by Christopher Columbus, but has since changed its name and focus to avoid upsetting Latin American residents in Spain.
January 6, the Epiphany or 'Three Kings' – when children will have opened their festive presents the night before brought by the Wise Men from the East – is celebrated in all regions in Spain, but the State allows it to be substituted for another regional public holiday.
Christmas Day, and Labour Day on May 1, are not included in the calendar even though they are celebrated nationally, since both fall on a Sunday in 2016.
Boxing Day, or St Stephen's Day is not normally a holiday in Spain, but this year – when it falls on a Monday – it will be a day off work everywhere except the Canary Islands, Galicia, the Basque Country and La Rioja.
Most regions will have a day off for Maundy Thursday, except Catalunya, although normally the ones which take Easter Monday as a bank holiday – the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, Catalunya, Valencia, Navarra and La Rioja – tend to do so instead of the Thursday before Easter.
Due to Labour Day falling on a Sunday, some regions – Andalucía, Madrid, the Canary Islands, Aragón, Castilla y León, Asturias and Extremadura – will take Monday, May 2 as a bank holiday instead.
July 25, day of Santiago Apóstol (St James the Apostle), is a bank holiday in Madrid, Galicia, Navarra, La Rioja and the Basque Country, whilst St John's Day – or San Juan – on June 24, the day after the summer solstice, is a holiday in Catalunya and Galicia.
March 19 is San José's or St Joseph's Day, which is Father's Day in Spain, and a set-in-stone bank holiday in the Valencia region because of its spectacular, colourful, noisy and feel-good Fallas fiestas, but is sometimes a normal working day elsewhere in the country – even in southern parts of the Valencia region where the Fallas are rarely celebrated.
Other than the Comunidad Valenciana, only Murcia and the Spanish-owned city-province of Melilla on the northern African coast will be off work on March 19.
Easter comes a week after the Fallas and San José's Day this year – Good Friday, March 25 is a bank holiday in every region, with Easter Monday, March 28 for some and Maundy Thursday, March 24 in others.
February, April, June and September are the only months in 2016 with no national or regional holidays.
However, each individual city, town and even village often has its own, separate bank holidays for its main fiestas, meaning workplaces based there will frequently give their staff the day off even if they live in a town where it is business as usual.
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