Francisco de Zurbarán
Today is a public holiday in Spain – La Inmaculada Concepción, which, as its name suggests, is a religious feast day. In the UK there are also plenty of public holidays, usually known as ‘bank holidays’ because, in the past, the banks were closed. The name has stuck, though most of us now do online banking and it makes no difference to us whether we actually go into a branch of our bank or not.
Most bank holidays are moved to a Monday, so the Spanish idea of a ‘puente’ doesn’t exist. The ‘puente’ idea comes from the fact that if a Thursday, for example, is a public holiday, and you take the Friday off, you have ‘bridged’ the public holiday with the weekend, thus giving you a 4-day weekend in which to go on a little trip, or simply relax.
The religious holidays in UK are 25th December, Good Friday and Easter Monday (whenever they fall). Boxing Day, the 26th of December, is also a public holiday to recover from the excesses of Christmas day. If this happens to fall on a weekend, as it does in 2026, then the day will be celebrated the following Monday (known as a substitute day).
Apart from those days, the following are also bank holidays: 1st January, two in May (early May bank holiday, and spring bank holiday) and one on the last Monday of August (summer bank holiday). That makes 8 in all. There are sometimes a few regional holidays too, such as St Patrick’s in Ireland, or St Andrew’s in Scotland.
In total, the UK and Wales enjoy 8, Ireland 9 and Scotland 10. In Spain there are 8 national holidays and then each region and municipality has its own, so some years there are up to 14 public holidays, which are thoroughly appreciated by all of us!
