Bank holidays for 2017 released: Nine national non-working days plus regional 'fiestas'
Wednesday, October 12, 2016 @ 12:09 PM
NEXT year's bank holiday calendar has been issued already, giving Spanish workers plenty of time to plan their bonus days off and everyone else to work out when they will need to get extra groceries in before the shops shut.
Of the 12 annual national holidays, nine are considered 'non-substitutable' – given that most are global and deep-rooted traditionally – of which New Year's Day is not one, since it falls on a Sunday which is a non-working day in any case.
If January 6, or 'Three Kings Day' – when Spain normally hands out Christmas presents – falls on a Sunday, it is usually moved to Monday, January 7, but in 2017 it is on a Friday so workers and school children will get a long weekend.
Otherwise, the 'fixed' national holidays are Good Friday, which falls on April 14; 'Labour Day', always on May 1 – a Monday in 2017; Tuesday, August 15, 'Day of the Assumption'; Thursday, October 12, 'Hispanic Day', historically to mark the conquering of the Americas but now simply 'National Day for Spain' so as not to remind Latin American residents of the bloodthirsty colonisation; Wednesday, November 1, 'All Saint's Day', when Spain traditionally honours its departed loved ones and attends to graves; Wednesday, December 6, 'Constitution Day', and Friday, December 8, 'Day of the Immaculate Conception'; and finally, Christmas Day, which falls on a Monday in 2017.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com