San Esteban holiday

Christmas is the most important holiday for Europeans. Jesus’s birth attracts everyone’s attention, causing meals on this date to be excessively large. Of course, all this food is not just for 25 December; on San Esteban, all the Christmas food left over from the previous day is eaten again.

Not all of Spain celebrates 26 December as San Esteban Day; only Catalonia has this tradition among Spaniards. The reason dates back to Cataluña Vieja, when it was under the rule of Charlemagne and his empire. In those times, 25 December was kept as a family celebration, when large families gathered and returned to their homes the following day. At first it was only a day on which no work was done, but celebrations and festivities soon began to surround it.

It took this name from the first of Jesus’s apostles, and 26 December was chosen because it was the date closest to the birth of Jesus Christ.