Next Monday is another public holiday here in Spain, so make sure you get your shopping done today or tomorrow.

15 de agosto is a very important día festivo in Spain, since it’s the day of the Virgin Mary, the date of her Assumption into Heaven.

According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as other churches, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life. The Roman Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." This doctrine was dogmatically and infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950, in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus.

In his August 15, 2004, homily given at Lourdes, Pope John Paul II quoted John 14:3 as one of the scriptural bases for understanding the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. In this verse, Jesus tells his disciples at the Last Supper, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also." According to Catholic theology, Mary is the pledge of the fulfilment of Christ's promise.

The feast of the Assumption on August 15 is a public holiday in many countries apart from Spain. These include Austria, Belgium, Chile, Ecuador, France, Greece, Lebanon, Italy, Malta, Poland and Portugal.

With acknowledgements to Wikipedia

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