Super-Size My Weekend

In many contexts, I’ve had to learn to live with “less” in Spain. My closet is tiny. The apartment I share with my husband and daughter is around the size of the one that I had all to myself in my single girl days. On a daily basis, I grumble over how much smaller the parking spaces are here.

But there is one thing that the Spanish do big: vacations and holidays. As if an entire month in the summer wasn't enough of a break from the day-to-day drudgery of working, there are a plethora of holidays scattered throughout the year. Practical in many ways, the Spanish will decide that if a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, it just isn't worth it to go into work for one day. Therefore many companies (both big and small) will declare it a puente (bridge). The mother of all puentes will soon be upon us, as in early December, there are two national holidays, separated by only one day, which will morph into a long weekend. This year, they will combine with Saturday and Sunday to form a five-day break, perfect for a get-away. So yes, please, super-size my weekend!  Here is a basic overview of how the holidays work in Spain:  National Holidays - fixed holidays celebrated throughout Spain. These include:     New Year's Day - Jan 1st     Ephiphany - Jan 6th     Good Friday - varies from year to year     Easter - varies from year to year     Labor Day - May 1st     Columbus Day - Oct 12th     All Saint's Day - Nov 1st     Constitution Day - Dec 6th     Immaculate Conception - Dec 8th     Christmas Day -Dec 25th  Regional holidays - Dates specific to a region. For example, Dec 26th (Saint Stephen's Day) is a holiday in Catalonia, but not in other parts of Spain. Others in Catalonia include: Easter Monday, Sant Joan (June 24th) and the Diada (Sept 11th).  Local holidays - Dates specific to a city or village. Even my tiny town of 15,000 residents observes local holidays. Since these don't often synch up from one village to another, if you and your spouse work in different locations, only one of you will have the day off.  Note: If the holiday falls on a Sunday, you lose out. When I worked in the USA, if a national holiday fell on a Sunday, we would have been given that Monday off. Here, it doesn't work that way. But with all those "puentes" throughout the year, no one should be complaining! --Chris K.