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Among the many things that often shock visitors to Spain about Spanish culture, one major one is the fact that people often congratulate others on their special day when it’s not actually their birthday.

 

You may have heard many men called ‘Juan’ being told “Felicidades” on June 24 even if their birthday is in July, or people saying “¡Feliz Santo!” to women called ‘Carmen’ on July 16 although they were born in June.

 

That’s because it’s their Día del Santo, their Saint’s Name Day, an ancient Spanish Onomastic custom based on Birthday feast days that is thought to date back to the Middle Ages.

 

 

The reason Spanish people have Name Days is because of the Catholic calendar that assigns a different saint to each day of the year.

 

As such, the name a person has determines when their Santo is. For example, if a person is born on January 7 and their name is Domingo, their birthday will be on January 7 but their Saint Day will be on August 8.

 

As such, a Santo Saint Day is not really a birthday, but it is sometimes celebrated with a special meal with friends and family.

 

Formerly, many more people in Spain were actually named after the saint whose day they were born on, so the Saint Day and their birthday was on the same day.

 

 

Nowadays, the celebration of Santo days has waned amongst the younger generations in Spain.

 

As part of the broad secularisation of society in Spain as elsewhere, it is now mostly the older generations and the most devout who celebrate Saint Days, who congratulate people on their Saint Day and expect to be congratulated in return.

 

Some people may make a special offering in their church to their saint on their Saint’s Day, to pray for the saint to watch over them and protect them. Spain also has a ‘Day of All the Saints’ or the ‘Día de Todos los Santos’, which is celebrated on November 1 every year and which is an opportunity to venerate every saint in the Catholic roster.

 

While these traditions have waned over the years, a Saint Day is a very typical Spanish, Latin American and Catholic tradition and one that you should feel free to embrace if you wish (and if you can, since not everybody’s name coincides with one of the saints of the Catholic calendar!).

 

Image: Archive