Spain allows each autonomous community to decide whether to move a national holiday that falls on Sunday to the following Monday. For Monday 2 November, nine have done so, giving people who do not work weekends or public holidays the chance of a three-day break.
The regions observing the holiday are Andalucía, Aragón, Asturias, Canarias, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Madrid and Navarra. Cantabria, Cataluña, Comunidad Valenciana, Galicia, Islas Baleares, La Rioja, Murcia and País Vasco have kept it on 1 November. Ceuta and Melilla have also not moved the holiday.
The change makes this the second long weekend in less than a month: 12 October, Spain’s national holiday, also fell on a Monday. Communities make these calendar decisions while observing the annual limit of 14 public holidays, including national, regional and local days.
Madrid City Council scheduled extended services around Todos los Santos. Municipal cemeteries, including Nuestra Señora de la Almudena, the Civil and Hebrew cemeteries and Sur Carabanchel, were set to open continuously from 26 October through 2 November, generally from 08:00 to 18:30; the special hours for Sunday 1 November were 08:00 to 17:00. Free guided visits to the Almudena cemetery were also scheduled from 28 October to 2 November, subject to capacity.
EMT Madrid planned to reinforce cemetery routes from 24 October through 2 November, with up to 14 additional buses on the morning of Sunday 1 November: nine on regular routes and five on special services. Lines 106, 110 and 113 serve the Almudena cemetery, while special services link Plaza Elíptica with Cementerio Sur and Plaza de Castilla with Cementerio de Fuencarral, Madrid City Council said.
Madrid city has another local holiday this month. Monday 9 November marks Nuestra Señora de la Almudena, patron of the city alongside San Isidro. The day off applies within Madrid city, not across the whole autonomous community.
