A holiday

Trees.  You like trees don’t you.  Trees ad small lanes wandering in between occasional cottages and farm houses without any other feature.  Well, we have a treat for you today!


So, as I am in a holiday mood lets talk holidays in 2024 in Galaica.  Here is a list



1st January - New Year’s Day.

6th January - Epiphany

28th March - Maundy Thursday

29th March - Good Friday

1st May - Labour Day

17th Galacian Literature Day

25th July - Saint James’ day / National Day of Galicia

15th August - Assumption of the Virgin Mary

12th October - Fiesta Nacional de España

1st November - All Saints

6th December - Constitution Day

25th December - Christmas Day



Many of these are national or almost national days.  The feast of the Assuming Mary caught us out - Ikea in Oviedo was not open and we were late to the beach so had to put up with a below high tide place.  That beach presented an interesting sociology. The keen had established well placed situations early. The tardy were increasing shuffled to the damper sand. Those unimpressed with sand but liked sea occupied the strips of grass nearby and the local kids went to the back of the beach. They were not swimming; they were hanging out and generally engaging in hopefulness with their fellow young things.




Let's look at the National Day, naturally on the same day as that of Saint James who - let us be honest, is the patron saint of ‘Visit Galicia.’ In 1919, the Assembly of the Galicianist organisation Irmandades da Fala met and decided to celebrate the National Day on 25th July the following year.  It was celebrated openly until the Francoist dictatorship (1939-1977), when any display of non-Spanish nationalism was prohibited. During that time the National Day would still be celebrated as such by the Galician emigrant communities abroad. 





From 1968, a the Francoist regime entered its senile period Galicianists attempted to celebrate the day in Compostela.. The Partido Socialista de Galicia and the Unión do Povo Galego called for public political demonstrations every 25th July. These demonstrations led to clashes with the authorities.  During the first years of democracy, after 1977, any demonstration organised by the Asemblea Nacional-Popular Galega and the BN-PG (later the Galician Nationalist Bloc) would still be banned. It is only during the mid-1980s when the National Day started to, gradually, be celebrated with some degree of normality.  nThe 2013 festivities in Santiago de Compostela were canceled due to the fatal train crash that occurred the previous day.

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