Sources: Diario de León, 20 Minutos, La Crónica de León and Spain public holidays. The Consejo de Gobierno de Castilla y León announced the list of 2008 regional public holidays in the autonomous region of Castilla y León. The list contains a new twist; Monday, January 7, and Monday, October 13, will both be public holidays, as January 6 (Epiphany) and October 12 (Día de la Hispanidad), both fall on a Sunday, in 2008. The full list of 2008 public holidays in the autonomous region is therefore: 1/1, 7/1, 20/3, 21/3, 23/4, 1/5, 15/8, 13/10, 1/11, 6/12, 8/12, and 25/12.Analysis: This is noteworthy, as the practice of moving public holidays that fall on a weekend to the next working day has so far not been followed anywhere in Spain. This could be a developing trend, and we will keep monitoring further developments.
Background: Recall that Spanish regions, towns, villages and cities can each have additional public holidays of their own. There is a base of, usually 9, public holidays that are common to all regions of Spain, plus Epiphany and Maundy Thursday which each region can replace with one or two region-specific public holidays. Regions also have the option of adding a regional public holiday, without removing any of the common ones, or Epiphany and Maundy Thursday. The main reason why the specific public holidays for each province and municipality change every year, such as is the case here, is that these are usually patron saint days, which always occur on a fixed date. Therefore, when these fixed dates fall on a weekend, another holiday or patron saint is chosen for that year, to avoid "wasting" a holiday.
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