New Year & Epiphany (Three Kings) — Spain
Photo: Farnaz Kohankhaki / Unsplash
About
Spain's festive season closes with two national holidays: New Year's Day (1 January) and Epiphany (6 January), when the Three Kings — not Santa — bring children their gifts. On the eve of Epiphany, glittering Cabalgata de Reyes parades roll through Seville and every Spanish town.
Highlights
- Two national holidays bookending the New Year
- Cabalgata de Reyes parade on the evening of 5 January
- Epiphany — when Spanish children receive their gifts
Practical tips
- Catch Seville's Cabalgata de Reyes on 5 January — bring a bag for the thrown sweets.
- Most shops, banks and offices close on 1 and 6 January.
- Try the ring-shaped Roscón de Reyes cake on Epiphany.
Other upcoming events
Granada International Festival of Music and Dance 2026
One of Europe's oldest classical-music festivals stages a month of concerts, ballet and recitals in the incomparable setting of the Alhambra's palaces and gardens, plus venues across Granada. The 75th edition runs from June into July.
Velá de Santiago y Santa Ana 2026 — Triana
Triana's beloved summer street fiesta honours the district's patroness, Santa Ana, with six days of riverside revelry on Calle Betis and Plaza del Altozano. Nightly concerts, stalls and the daring 'cucaña' — a greased pole jutting over the Guadalquivir — define this most quintessentially Sevillian of celebrations.
Assumption of Mary (Spain)
The Feast of the Assumption on 15 August is a national public holiday and one of the high points of the Spanish summer, with patron-saint ferias in many towns. In Seville it falls during the sweltering, quieter August low season.