Hispanidad Day, Feast of the Holy Virgin of Pilar (12/10)

October 12 — double holiday in Spain: Feast of the Holy Virgin of Pilar and National Holiday of Spain — Hispanidad Day (Día de la Hispanidad/Hispanic Day).

The day was originally celebrated in Aragon (one of Spain's historical areas) as a holiday in honor of Our Lady of Pilar. According to legend, the Holy Virgin appeared to the Apostle Santiago on the banks of the Ebro River and supported the saint in his difficult missionary duty — to spread Christianity in Spain. Moreover, the Mother of God appeared standing on a column (column, pillar — in Spanish pilar), hence the name — Holy Virgin Pilar.

The cult of Our Lady of Pilar — is one of the most revered and famous in Catholic Spain. Older Spaniards are very sensitive to this holiday — they love it more than their own birthday.

On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus, leading a Spanish expedition, discovered the lands of the New World. It is quite natural that believers saw this as a sign of patronage and help from the Holy Virgin Pilar. Thanks to this discovery, Columbus's name is inscribed in golden letters in the history of not only Spain, where National Day is celebrated annually on October 12, but also in world history.

The origins of the October 12 celebration take us back to the last century. In 1913, Faustino Rodriguez San Pedro (a famous and influential entrepreneur and lawyer who headed the Latin American Union at that time) proposed naming October 12 Fiesta de la Raza (a holiday of the Spanish race). This holiday became an official national holiday in Spain in 1918 and began to be celebrated throughout Spain and Latin America.

However, in 1926, the Spanish priest Zacarias de Vizcarra, demonstrating greater respect for the diversity of nations in Central and South America, wrote an article in which he proposed replacing the word «rasa» in the description of this holiday with the word «ispanidad». In 1935, the national holiday was officially renamed Fiesta de la Hispanidad — Spanish Nation Day.

One of the meanings of the word Hispanidad — is community, a community of Spanish-speaking peoples. During Franco's time, this day was celebrated as the day of the Spanish race, the Spanish spirit and was of a certain imperial nature. Today, democratic Spain considers this day a kind of birthday of the community of peoples of the Spanish language, the day of Spanish civilization. It should be noted that many Spaniards are skeptical about this date.

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