Guide

Public holidays in Spain: the BOE annex, decoded

By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026

Spain's working-holiday calendar is published each autumn by the Dirección General de Trabajo in the BOE — the 2026 list appeared as a resolution of 17 October 2025. Seven national dates applied in every region in 2026: 1 January, Good Friday, 1 May, 15 August, 12 October, 8 December and 25 December, with Epiphany (6 January) also kept everywhere. The 2027 resolution lands in the BOE around October 2026 — check there for the definitive dates.

How Spain's holiday system works

Spain doesn't have one national holiday list — it has a machine that produces one each year. Royal Decree 2001/1983 (article 45.1) defines the national labour holidays, splitting them into dates that are national and non-substitutable and dates the autonomous communities may keep or swap for their own traditional holidays. Each autumn the Dirección General de Trabajo publishes the assembled result — every region's final calendar — as a resolution in the BOE. For 2026 that was the resolution of 17 October 2025, published 28 October 2025.

Source: BOE-A-2025-21667 — Resolución de 17 de octubre de 2025, fiestas laborales 2026, read 6 September 2026.

Reading the annex: one asterisk, two, or three

The BOE annex is a grid of dates against all 17 communities plus Ceuta and Melilla, coded three ways:

* — national holiday, non-substitutable. In 2026: 1 January (Año Nuevo), 3 April (Viernes Santo), 1 May (Fiesta del Trabajo), 15 August (Asunción), 12 October (Fiesta Nacional de España), 8 December (Inmaculada Concepción) and 25 December (Natividad del Señor) — marked in every column.
** — national holiday where the region chose not to exercise its swap right. Epiphany, 6 January, carried two asterisks in all nineteen columns in 2026; Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo) did in most.
*** — the region's own holiday: 28 February in Andalucía, 11 September in Cataluña, 25 July in Galicia, and so on.

So a "Spanish public holiday" always has a region attached — the only safe universal set is the starred rows.

Source: BOE-A-2025-21667, anexo — relación de fiestas laborales 2026, read 6 September 2026.

60-second check

Not sure the policy you have meets your destination's written rule? Run it through the policy check now, before you build the rest of the file around it.

Check my policy

Where the 2027 list is

The 2027 resolution had not yet been published when we wrote this page — these resolutions arrive in the BOE in the autumn of the preceding year (the 2026 list on 28 October 2025, the 2025 list in mid-October 2024). When it lands, the definitive 2027 grid will sit in the BOE's fiestas laborales resolution for 2027; searching boe.es for "relación de fiestas laborales 2027" will surface it. Until then, treat any 2027 list you find elsewhere as a projection — the starred national dates are stable year to year, but the regional layer and the substitutions move.

Source: BOE — Dirección General de Trabajo, fiestas laborales (annual series), read 6 September 2026.

Get a certificate that meets the published rule

Tell us your destination, visa, and who’s moving. Our team reviews it against the current requirement and calls you with a quote — no obligation.

Get my quote Check my policy first

Cover underwritten by Regency Assurance · every rule on this site cited and dated · a person calls back within one business day.

Before you request a quote: cover is worldwide but excludes treatment in the United States, and pre-existing conditions are not covered — including conditions you did not know about. We say this up front so a quote is worth your time.

Common questions

How many public holidays does Spain have?

It depends on the region. The 2026 BOE annex shows the national starred dates plus each community's own — the total any one worker sees combines the national layer, the regional layer and (outside this resolution) two local municipal holidays set separately.

Are shops and offices closed on regional holidays?

Regional holidays are full labour holidays in their territory — paid and non-recoverable in the decree's terms. A holiday in Cataluña means nothing in Madrid, which is why the annex is a grid and not a list.

When will the official 2027 dates be published?

Expect the resolution in the BOE around October 2026, following the pattern of recent years. This page cites the 2026 resolution; the same annual series will carry 2027.

Do public holidays affect visa offices and appointments?

Yes — extranjería offices, police stations for TIE fingerprinting and civil registries all close on national and their region's holidays. Factor the starred dates and your region's extras into any paperwork timeline.

Keep reading

Public holidays in France 2027 Public holidays in Portugal Average salary in Spain