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B115 words5 phrases

Holidays and festivals

The Spanish calendar is full of days when everything closes, and understanding them saves you from standing outside a locked supermarket wondering why.

Quick answer

Mañana es fiesta, está todo cerrado.

Tomorrow is a public holiday, everything is closed. Ser fiesta is the fixed way to say a day is a holiday.

The words

SpanishEnglish
la fiestathe celebration
el día festivothe public holiday
las vacacionesthe holidays
la NavidadChristmas
la NochebuenaChristmas Eve
la NocheviejaNew Year's Eve
los Reyes Magosthe Three Kings
la Semana SantaHoly Week
el cumpleañosthe birthday
el regalothe present
el desfilethe parade
los fuegos artificialesthe fireworks
el puentethe long weekend
celebrarto celebrate
felicitarto congratulate

The phrases you will actually say

Mañana es fiesta, está todo cerrado.Tomorrow is a public holiday, everything is closed.
En Nochevieja comemos doce uvas.On New Year's Eve we eat twelve grapes.
Los niños reciben los regalos el seis de enero.The children get their presents on the sixth of January.
Hay un puente la semana que viene.There is a long weekend next week.
¡Feliz cumpleaños! ¿Cómo lo vas a celebrar?Happy birthday! How are you going to celebrate?

Worth knowing

On Nochevieja Spain eats twelve grapes, one on each chime of the clock at midnight, traditionally following the bells of the Puerta del Sol in Madrid on television; managing all twelve is supposed to bring a good year, and people buy tins of small peeled grapes to keep up. Presents traditionally arrive not on the twenty-fifth but on the sixth of January from los Reyes Magos, preceded by the cabalgata parade on the evening of the fifth. A puente is the bridge day taken when a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, and if two holidays make a four-day block people call it an acueducto. Finally, felicitar is used far more widely than "congratulate": you felicitar someone on their birthday, their saint day and at Christmas.

Practice

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What do Spaniards traditionally eat at midnight on Nochevieja?

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