National holidays and celebrations explained

July 25 - St James, St Jacob [Sant-Iago], National Day of Galicia
St James / St Jacob (Sant-Iago in Galician) has been the Patron Saint of Galicia since the 9th century AD, when his remains were 'discovered' just in the very same shrine where the Galician heretical bishop Priscillian was buried and worshiped. July 25th was declared St James' Day following the Martyrologium written in AD 865 by Gaulish monk Usuard de Saint-Germain-des-Prés. In the 12th century, the head of the Galician Church, Archbishop Diego Gelmires marketed effectively across all Europe the pilgrimage to St James, and Galicia became the main centre of religious pilgrimage in the world, overtaking Rome and Jerusalem. Since then, July 25th - St James' Day is the most important day of the year for the Galicians. In AD 1120 Diego Gelmires decided to wait until July 25th to publicily announce the great privileges given by the Pope to the Shrine of Santiago de Compostela. In AD 1386 the Duke of Lancaster decided to wait until July 25th to announce himself as the new king of Galicia, in the city of Corunna. After the five Dark Centuries under Castilian rule (centuries 15th-20th), July 25th was again restored in 1920 as the National Day of Galicia. The Franco dictatorship forbade the celebration of the Galician national Day, however, exiled Galicians kept celebrating it all around the world. July 25th 1948 was the date when the President of the Galician Government in exile, Mr. Afonso Rodriguez-Castelao, read his famous speech Alba de Groria ("Glorious Dawn") in the Galician House [Centro Gallego] of Buenos Aires. The celebration of the Galician National Day was still forbidden by the Spanish authorities even several years after the end of the Franco dictatorship. July 25th has been the National Day of Galicia for over a millennium and therefore is the main flag flying day of the year.

May 17 - Day of the Galician Language [Dia das Letras Galegas]
In 1863 Galician poet Rosalia de Castro published her book "Cantares Gallegos" (Galician Songs), which is considered to have been the first milestone in the Galician Cultural Revival of the 19th century. In 1963, one century after the book was first printed, the Royal Academy of Galicia (Real Academia Galega) decided to dedicate one day of the year to honour the Galician language and the Galician intellectuals. Every year May 17th is Dia das Letras Galegas, a Galician national holiday on which the Galicians honour their language and culture.

June 28 - Home Rule: First Statute of Autonomy of Galicia, 1936
In June 28th 1936 Galicia organised a referendum to decide her political future. In those days, every single issue dealing with Galicia was decided and dispatched from Madrid. The referendum had been the result of many years of work by the Partido Galeguista ("The Galician Party"), who campaigned for a devolved government for Galicia. The popular consultation was asking the Galicians whether they wanted to become a self-governed country, albeit participating in a federal union with Spain. Out of 1,343,135 people with the right to vote, 993,351 Galicians voted "YES" for a Home Rule Act for Galicia, (Statute of Autonomy) against only 6,161 people who voted "no". On June 28th, the Galicians decided to govern themselves as a nation while still being part of a new federal Spanish state.

August 17 - Galician Martyrs' Day
One month after the Galicians had voted for political autonomy in 1936, general Franco tried a military coup and started a war against the Spanish government. General Franco counted with the military help of allies such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The war caught Galicia by surprise and the Franco army ceased power rapidly, starting a political purge that can be compared, in number of victims, to the ones commited in the former Yugoslavia. The victims of that political purge were Galician activists and anyone who was opposed to the military regime of general Franco. According to the professor of the University of Santiago, Mr. Ramon Maiz, the Franco militias assassinated between 27,000 and 30,000 men and women who were suspected of being Galician activists, trade unionists, or intellectuals opposed to the coup. Those men and women were chosen and assassinated name by name, house by house, by night and by day. Almost all the men who wrote the Home Rule Act of Galicia were executed. Most of the 3,000 members of the Partido Galeguista ("The Galician Party") were executed. Many more people managed to escape to the Americas or to Europe: town mayors, politicians, professors, lawyers, researchers, civil servants, writers, artists... The killing and exile of so many educated people left Galicia in a precarious intellectual situation that lasted for the rest of the century and has been qualified of "cultural genocide" by the Galeguistas. The atrocities that were commited in Galicia by the military forces of general Franco destroyed lives, destroyed families, and destroyed a country that was enjoying a cultural and political revival. One of those many Galicians assassinated by the Spanish nationalists was Mr. Alexandre Boveda, Secretary of Organisation of the Partido Galeguista. In the dawn of August 17th 1936 Mr. Boveda was taken to a nearby hill, tied to a tree, and shot several times. Alexandre Boveda was 33 years old, was married and had five children. Like many other Galicians, he was Christian catholic. Days after his assassination, the military chopped down the tree where he was killed because the local people had started to take pieces of it as religious relics. Marking the assassination of Alexandre Boveda, the Galician Government in exile proclaimed in 1942 the 17th of August as the Galician Martyrs' Day, a day to honour all the thousands of men and women that were killed and died for Galicia.

September 17 - Coronation of King Afonso Raimundes and restoration of the Royal House of Galicia, 1111
For many centuries, the kingdoms of Galicia and Leon belonged to Galician royal dinasties born in Galicia, educated in Galicia, and buried in Galicia. That changed after the Battle of Tamaron in 1037, when king Vermudo III of Galicia and Leon was defeated by count Fernando I of Castile. As a result of the defeat, a foreign Castilian dinasty sat on the thrones of Galicia and Leon for almost half a century. The fact is that the Galicians were not happy having foreign kings, so they revolted against their second Castilian king Alfonso VI in 1085. The 1085 revolt was crushed and the Galicians were punished severely. Even the head of the Church of Galicia, Bishop Diego Pelaes, was sent to exile after being accused of conspiring to crown William I 'The Conqueror' of England as the new King of Galicia. Alfonso VI was too unpopular in his Galician kingdom, therefore the Castilian king decided to delegate the government of Galicia on Earl Raymond of Burgundy, but before that, he splitted the Kingdom of Galicia in two, for he knew the strategy of "divide and conquer". Northern Galicia was governed by Earl Raymond of Burgundy and southern Galicia was handed out to his cousin Henry of Burgundy. The Galicians accepted rapidly the two burgundians. Historically, Galicians and Burgundians had got along rather well since the 6th century alliance of both kingdoms, when King Gontran of Burgundy sent troops to help out King Andeca of Gallaecia against the Hispanic-Visigoths. Five centuries later, Earl Raymond of Burgundy arrived to Galicia and was received with friendship by Earl Pedro Froilaz de Trava, the greatest Galician nobleman ever. In exchange, Raymond gave his son Afonso Raimundes in fosterage to Earl Froilaz. Raymond of Burgundy governed the Kingdom of Galicia during two decades with the support of the Galicians, and on his death in 1107 he was buried with royal honours next to other Kings of Galicia at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Galicia needed a new king and that king had to be Galician. During all those years, young Afonso Raimundes had been educated as a future king by the greatest noble of Galicia, Earl Pedro Froilaz de Trava, and by the head of the Church of Galicia, Bishop Diego Gelmires. The Galician nobility and the Galician Church needed allies abroad if they really wanted to restore a Galician king back in the Galician throne. Burgundy sent to Galicia their Archbishop Guy de Vienne -later Pope Calixtus II- who was the brother of Earl Raymond and the uncle of prince Afonso Raimundes. Galicians and Burgundians agreed that prince Afonso Raimundes was their man. In September 17th 1111, in a glamorous ceremony in Santiago Cathedral, prince Afonso Raimundes was crowned King Afonso VII of Galicia by Bishop Diego Gelmires. Moreover, in 1135 Afonso Raimundes recovered also the kingdoms of Leon and Castile. In September 17th 1111, less than a century after the Battle of Tamaron, Galicia had managed to restore a Galician Royal House, born in Galicia, educated in Galicia, buried in Galicia; a Galician dinasty that lasted with the kings Fernando II of Galicia and Leon (1157-1188), Afonso IX of Galicia and Leon (1188-1230), and Fernando III of Galicia and Leon (1230-1252).

December 21 - Home Rule: Second Statute of Autonomy of Galicia, 1980
On December 21st 1980, almost half a century after the people of Galicia had voted for their First Home Rule Act (Statute of Autonomy), the Galicians were called to vote in a new referendum to confirm whether they still wanted political devolution. The level of political autonomy to be approved was rather limited when compared with the 1936 Statute, and the Galician political parties were greatly divided about whether to vote for it or against it. Despite a confusing political climate, on December 21st a 73% of the voters decided to say "YES" to a Second Home Rule Act (Statute of Autonomy) which brought back to Galicia a Galician legislative Parliament, a Galician executive Government, and a Galician High Court of Justice.