‘Adeu’ 2025 and ‘Hola!’ 2026!
By the way, a public holiday is called a dia festiu in Catalan and a día festivo in Castilian Spanish.
Across Spain, certain fixed national holidays apply to all regions. There are nine in total, include New Year’s Day, Día de Reyes on 6 January, Labour Day on 1 May, the Feast of the Assumption on 15 August, the Spanish National Day on 12 October, followed a couple of days later by the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on the 8th. And, of course, Christmas Day on 25 December.
Good Friday is also a día festivo throughout Spain, but as the date changes every year, it counts as a floating holiday. In practice, this means that Spain has 10 national public holidays: 9 fixed and 1 floating.
Regional holidays
In addition to the ten Spanish holidays, each Comunidad Autónoma also has its own regional day, which, in our ‘Autonomous Community’, is the Diada de Catalunya on 11 September. Each autonomous government can then choose up to three further public holidays for its region, but in some cases it chooses fewer to allow more public holidays to be assigned at a local level.
Catalunya
Over the Easter period, which falls on different dates each year, each region has either two or three public holidays, though not always on the same days.
For example, Good Friday is a public holiday throughout Spain, as we mentioned above, as is Holy Thursday everywhere except in Catalunya and neighbouring Valencia. On the other hand, Catalunya has a dia festiu (public holiday) on Easter Monday, whereas most other regions do not.
Although the St John’s Day (Sant Joan) on 24 June is celebrated in many places throughout Spain, only in Catalunya, Valencia and Galicia is it an official regional holiday.
While everyone has a holiday on Christmas Day, 25 December, Catalunya is the only autonomous region to have the next day, St. Stephen’s Day, off too.
To recap, Catalunya has ten public holidays in common with the rest of Spain. It also has its own national dia festiu on 11 September (Diada de Catalunya), plus Easter Monday, Saint John’s Day and St. Stephen’s Day.
Sundays don’t count!
If a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the governments can designate an alternative date for the holiday or, as is usually the case in Catalunya, allow local authorities to choose one themselves. This is why you will sometimes find that one municipality has a local holiday on a particular day while a neighbouring town does not.
In 2026, for example, All Saints’ Day on 1 November and Constitution Day on 6 December both fall on a Sunday. As a result, these holidays do not automatically lead to an additional day off in Catalunya. Unlike in some other regions, the Catalan government does not routinely move Sunday holidays to a weekday. Instead, local authorities may be permitted to designate an additional local public holiday to compensate for this. Bonus!
Maybe we should move to ‘Morocco’!
In total, each ‘autonomous community’ in Spain is granted 14 public holidays per year, including the nine national ones.
Ceuta and Melilla are two autonomous Spanish cities on the north coast of Africa, effectively enclaves within Morocco. Since 2010, they have been permitted an additional official public holiday to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), making it the first non-Christian religious festival officially celebrated in Spain since the end of the Reconquista in 1492.
Did you know that Monte Hacho in Ceuta is reputed to have once been one of the Pillars of Hercules, with the Rock of Gibraltar as the other? One version of the myth holds that Hercules smashed through a mountain to create a sea passage between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, leaving a ‘pillar’ on each side. According to the myth, that mountain had once been the god Atlas, who had been turned to stone when he looked at the head of Medusa. But we digress!
‘Making a bridge’
When a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, it is quite common for employers to give their workers the Monday or Friday off – or for employees themselves to take the Monday or Friday off – and make a long weekend of it. This custom is called hacer puente, or ‘making a bridge’. No sense in letting work get in the way of a good fiesta!
Public holidays in Catalunya 2026
1 January – Thursday
Cap d’Any (New Year’s Day)
6 January – Tuesday
Els Reis (Epiphany / Three Kings’ Day)
3 April – Friday
Divendres Sant (Good Friday)
6 April – Monday
Pascua Florida (Easter Monday)
1 May – Friday
Festa del Treball (Labour Day)
24 June – Wednesday
Sant Joan (St John’s Day)
15 August – Saturday
L’Assumpció (Assumption of Mary)
11 September – Friday
Diada Nacional de Catalunya (National Day of Catalonia)
12 October – Monday
Diada Nacional de Espanya (National Day of Spain)
1 November – Sunday
Festa de Tots Sants (All Saint’s Day)
6 December – Sunday
Dia de la Constitució (Constitution Day)
8 December – Tuesday
La Immaculada (Immaculate Conception)
25 December – Friday
Nadal (Christmas Day)
26 December – Saturday
Sant Esteve (St Stephen’s Day)
So, as you can see, there are 13 designated public holidays in Catalunya in 2026. Two of these holidays, All Saints’ Day on 1 November and Constitution Day on 6 December, fall on a Sunday, so they do not result in an additional day off. One further holiday, the Assumption of Mary on 15 August, falls on a Saturday. Unlike in some other regions, public holidays that fall on a Sunday are not automatically compensated in Catalunya, although local authorities may occasionally designate an additional local holiday. As always, it is advisable to check the exact calendar for your own municipality. We hope this overview helps you plan your year on La Costa Brava.