Letters Day and July 25 are the two holidays chosen by the Xunta and Easter, Carnival and San Roque, the most popular locally
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA / MADRID, 30 (EUROPA PRESS)
The 2023 work calendar contemplates a total of 9 national holidays that will be celebrated jointly throughout Spain, to which are added four of an autonomous nature and two set by the municipalities, among which Shrove Tuesday stands out. Easter and August 16, San Roque Day.
2023 will be a year with a national holiday more than 2022 that Saturday will be left behind. Specifically, they will be a holiday throughout Spain in 2023 next Friday, January 6 (Epiphany of the Lord), April 7 (Good Friday), Monday May 1 (Labor Festival), Tuesday August 15 (Asunción de the Virgin), Thursday October 12 (Spanish National Holiday), Wednesday November 1 (All Saints), Wednesday December 6 (Spanish Constitution Day), Friday December 8 (Immaculate Conception) and December 25 (Nativity of the Lord).
There are other common holidays that the autonomous communities can move to another day. This has happened with Thursday, April 6 (Holy Thursday), which will be a holiday in Galicia, where Friday, January 6, Three Kings Day, is also held.
To these are added the two regional holidays, which in 2023 will be May 17, Das Letras Galegas, and Galicia 25, Day of Galicia.
In addition, the town halls have the ability to decree another two holidays. The most popular option in Galicia is that of Shrove Tuesday, which this year falls on February 21st.
NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Among the faculties recognized to the autonomous communities is also the possibility of substituting the rest of the Monday following the national holidays that coincide on a Sunday by the incorporation of others that are traditional for them, as well as the option between the celebration of the festival of San José (March 19) or that of Santiago Apstol (July 25) in their corresponding territory.
Thus, this January 2 (Monday following New Year) will be a holiday only in Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Castilla y León and Murcia; Tuesday, July 25 (Santiago Apóstol) will only be a holiday in Castilla y León, Galicia, Navarra and the Basque Country, and the Monday following Saint Joseph’s Day will only be a holiday in Madrid.
The list of nine festivities common to the entire country in 2023 is as follows:
-January 6: Epiphany of the Lord (Friday).
-April 7: Good Friday (Friday).
-May 1: Labor Day (Monday).
-August 15: Asuncin de la Virgen (Martes).
-October 12: National Holiday of Spain (Thursday).
-November 1: All Saints (Wednesday).
-December 6: Spanish Constitution Day (Wednesday).
-December 8: Immaculate Conception (Friday).
-December 25: Christmas (Monday).
To the national holidays it is always necessary to add the regional holidays and two local ones, up to a total of 14 holidays a year.
A YEAR WITH SEVERAL LONG WEEKENDS
The celebration of several festivals on Monday or Friday, therefore attached to Saturday and Sunday, will allow this 2023 to have some longer weekends than usual in Spain as a whole.
So it is with January 6 (Friday); April 7 (Good Friday), May 1, which in 2023 falls on a Monday; December 25, which will also be held on Monday, and December 8, which will be Friday and, added to December 6 (Wednesday), will allow workers who can take time off on Thursday the 7th to enjoy a five-day long weekend. .
In the communities that have chosen to celebrate Holy Thursday (April 6), which are almost all, there will be a four-day bridge. And those workers who can afford to take a day off could extend the weekend for the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin (August 15) on Tuesday and the Hispanic Day festival (October 12) on Thursday.
AUTONOMOUS HOLIDAYS
The Council of the Xunta approved on July 21 the Galician work calendar for the year 2023, in which May 17, Galician Letters Day, and July 25, Galicia National Day, are set as their own holidays. The calendar was approved after the corresponding opinion of the Galician Council of Labor Relations.
In the year 2023 there is a mandatory national holiday that falls on a Sunday, January 1, which Galicia proposes to replace with May 17, Letras Galegas.
The other three national holidays are optional, that is, they can be replaced by the autonomous communities: January 6, which in Galicia is never changed unless it falls on a Sunday; Holy Thursday, which in 2023 will be celebrated on April 6 and which in the Galician Community is never modified in a traditional way; and they are given the option of choosing between March 19 and July 25, the latter always being chosen as it is the National Day of Galicia, as established in decree 8/1978 of July 10.
LOCAL HOLIDAYS
For its part, in mid-November the resolution of the General Directorate of Labor Relations was published in the DOG publicizing the local public holidays for the year 2023 corresponding to the municipalities of the four Galician provinces.
Thus, the DOG includes non-working days for labor purposes in each municipality, paid and non-recoverable for the coming year. In addition, it also reminds companies that they must display the work calendar in a visible place in each work center, for the information and consultation of their employees.
One of the days that is most repeated in many Galician municipalities is February 21, which this year falls on Shrove Tuesday, a festivity that is celebrated in a large part of Galicia. April 10 (Easter Monday) or August 16 (San Roque) are also other of the most frequent festival days in the Galician work calendar.
In the big cities, A Corua celebrates Shrove Tuesday (February 21) and the festivities of San Juan (June 24), while Ferrol this year also selected February 21 and April 10 (Easter Monday and Our Lady of Chamorro).
Ourense will celebrate on February 21 and November 11 (San Martí), as well as Vigo, which will once again be celebrated on March 28, the day of the Reconquest, and on August 16 (San Roque).
Santiago de Compostela will celebrate Ascension Day on May 18, and San Roque on August 16; as well as Lugo, which will stop on February 21 and October 5 (San Froiln). Pontevedra, for its part, celebrates February 22 (Ash Wednesday) and July 11 (San Benito).
