English-speaking countries Over two billion people speak

Holidays of foreign speaking countries
Spanish-speaking countries have holiday celebrations just like every other country. While we share some of the same holidays, you might be surprised to see how differently these holidays are celebrated. In this lesson, we'll look at some of the most important holidays to these peoples.

Spanish-Speaking Country Holidays

Spanish-speaking countries enjoy celebrating their holidays. Many of those celebrations are the international ones, like Christmas and New Year's. However, there are some other religious and non-religious holidays that are very important for the Spanish-speaking communities. In this lesson, we will identify some of the most important ones.

Now we'll look at the different holidays and special celebrations in Latin America and Spain one at a time, chronologically throughout the year.

Religion plays an important role in Latin cultures. Therefore, religious holidays such as Christmas, Holy Week, Epiphany, and Corpus Christi are celebrated with processions and masses. Lent and Easter are some of the most important holidays of the year.

Another very significant celebration is Christmas or better yet, Christmas Eve. People stay up until midnight to wish each other FelizNavidad. In Mexico, Las Posadas, and in Colombia, La Novena de Aguinaldos, are very famous. These involve nine days of prayers and carols starting December 16 until December 24. During these nights, families and friends participate in the prayer of the Novena, which symbolizes the pilgrimage of the Virgen Mary and Joseph through Bethlehem until the nativity of the Baby Jesus. It is very common to prepare special food and drinks to be shared every night after having prayed and sung villancicos (Christmas Carols).