Logroño celebrates Mohammed & Pakistan, ignores Christmas & Spain

| 08-01-2010 | Spanish Culture | Written by Matthew Bennett

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The socialist mayor in the northern Spanish town of Logroño has decided to publish the town’s official 2010 calendar and celebrate the birth of Mohammed and Pakistan’s Independence day, but not Christmas or Spain’s national holiday.

30,000 copies of the calendar, titled “Logroño, the people’s capital” have been published by the Logroño town hall, under the leadership of socialist mayor Tomás Santos.

Many right-wing and mainstream media organisations in Spain have picked up on the story today because they have ‘forgotten‘ to include many of the Christian saints and even some Spanish national holidays.

Saints’ days are big news in Spain.

Mohammed’s birthday on February 24, the end of Ramadan on September 9 and Pakistan independence day have all made it into the calendar, although it seems Pakistan independence day is actually August 14.

Christmas on December 25, Epiphany (also Three Kings day in Spain) on January 6 and Spain’s national holiday (and Columbus day) on October 12 have not been selected for this year’s calendar.

Clearly this hasn’t gone down well with the Spanish right or the Catholic Church in Spain, and will leave many Spaniards wondering what mayor Santos is up to in Logroño.

Curiously, looking at a bit of history on the Spanish Wikipedia page for Logroño, we can see that it was awarded its flag – a red and white St. Andrew’s Cross – by Fernando III in 1237 to commemorate success in the battle of Baeza 10 years previously – on November 30, 1227 – following his reconquest of the town from the Muslims.