December is a long-awaited month for many because it is synonymous with reunions. For others it’s just a month full of holidays. And it is that between Christmas and the December long weekend, which includes the Day of the constitution (December 6) and the Immaculate Conception’s Day (December 8), there are many citizens who take the opportunity to get away and enjoy a short vacation.
It is true that this 2022 these national holidays they have fallen in the middle of the week and with a bit of luck, if you have days off, you have been able to enjoy a long bridge; otherwise, you will have had to settle for enjoying these two days of rest. It should not be forgotten that the December long weekend begins with the celebration of Constitution Day and then continues with Immaculate Conception Day, which is celebrated every December 8. Something that includes the work calendar, but that invites us to think about what this second holiday is really celebrated and what is the true origin of these religious terms.
What is celebrated on December 8 in Spain?
The origin of this national holiday involves traveling back in time to the 19th century, specifically, to when Pope Pius XI chose December 8 to commemorate the Virgin Marywhom in Catholic terms they considered to be “free of sin and guilt from conception to death”. This served as the basis for understanding this national holiday, as we know it up to now.
Surely some have wondered why this date was chosen and not another. The answer is simple: a mathematical calculation. The Catholic religion celebrates the birth of the Virgin every September 8. Therefore, to calculate the moment in which she was conceived, nine months were subtracted, resulting in December 8. Therefore, the Day of the Immaculate Conception commemorates rather the moment in which the Virgin Mary was conceived.
The link between the Battle of Empel and the Immaculate Conception
Another reason that helps us understand the origin of this national holiday is a war event, specifically, the Battle of Empel, which was held on December 7 and 8, 1585. At that time, the Spanish army was fighting the Eighty Years’ War as best it could. The unit of the Tercio Viejo de Zamora, commanded by the leader Francisco Arias de Bobadilla, defeated up to ten ships from the Netherlands in extreme conditions.
However, at the biblical level, this triumph was not determined only by the resistance capacity of the military, but by the intervention that the Immaculate Conception had carried out for that victory to take place. This “help” of the Virgin led the high officials of the army to proclaim her as the patron saint of Infantry in Spain. Precisely for this reason, it is not uncommon for religious matters to refer to this fact as the “Empel miracle”.
Despite this, the Day of the Immaculate Conception as we know him today It did not begin to be remembered until 1644, when the Vatican, specifically, Pope Pius IX, through an apostolic letter, defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since then, the most believers have been able to commemorate their Virgin on a day as marked on the calendar as this one.
Where is a holiday on December 8?
The Day of the Immaculate Conception is listed as a non-replaceable day, which means that no autonomous community can make changes in this regard. Hence This December 8 is a holiday throughout Spainwithout exception.
