Is 5 October 2026 a holiday across the Canary Islands?

No. Decreto 61/2025 (BOC no. 88 of 5 May 2025) assigns it to La Gomera alone. The next Canary-wide holiday in October is the 12th, the Fiesta Nacional de España.

Why is it always a Monday?

The town hall's own festivity calendar in San Sebastián names the Monday after the first Saturday in October. The decrees follow it: 2024 the 7th, 2025 the 6th, 2026 the 5th, 2027 the 4th.

Do the ferries to Los Cristianos run that day?

No suspension has been announced anywhere — but neither has a published special timetable. Fred. Olsen Express advertises up to five daily departures on a 50-minute crossing; Armas publishes its times week by week, shortly in advance.

Will the Virgin travel to San Sebastián by boat in 2026?

No. The crossing belongs to the Bajada held every five years — last on 9 October 2023, next in 2028. In the intervening years the statue stays at Puntallana.

LA GOMERA · SOCIETY

5 October is a public holiday — but only on La Gomera

On Monday 5 October 2026 work stops on La Gomera: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the island's patron saint, is a non-working day — set out in Decreto 61/2025 of 28 April (BOC no. 88 of 5 May 2025). On the other six islands the same Monday is an ordinary working day. One island gets a long weekend and the rest do not, so anyone needing a La Gomera office that day, or travelling to or from the island, should plan ahead.

19 September 2026 · By Lucía Medina Reyes · 5 min · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief

The Roque de Tecina, La Gomera (illustrative)

Photo: Llez, CC BY-SA 3.0 (illustrative image).

5 October 2026 — the sources and the numbers

5 October 2026, a Monday: "festividad de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe", an island holiday for La Gomera alone (Decreto 61/2025, de 28 de abril, BOC no. 88 of 5 May 2025).
One island out of seven: the other patron days in the same decree — Tenerife 2 February, La Palma 5 August, Gran Canaria 8 September, Lanzarote and La Graciosa 15 September, Fuerteventura 18 September, El Hierro 24 September.
No municipal holiday in October: no La Gomera town hall placed either of its two local days in October 2026 (Consejería de Turismo y Empleo, BOC no. 165/2025).
"05/10/2026 · Ntra. Sra. de Guadalupe": that is how the day appears in the calendar of días inhábiles on the sede electrónica of the Ayuntamiento de San Sebastián de La Gomera — deadlines there do not run.
2023 and 2028: the Bajada, the sea crossing that carries the statue from Puntallana to San Sebastián, happens only every five years; the last was on 9 October 2023 (CanariWiki, Government of the Canary Islands).

Why the date moves — and always lands on a Monday

The holiday has no fixed calendar date. The festivity calendar published by the town hall of San Sebastián de La Gomera gives the rule plainly: "Lunes después del primer sábado de octubre", the Monday after the first Saturday in October. In 2026 that is the 5th. The decrees bear the rule out: in 2024 it fell on 7 October, in 2025 on the 6th, and for 2027 Decreto 115/2026 of 29 June (BOC no. 133 of 3 July 2026) already names 4 October. La Gomera therefore has a long weekend every year that no other island has.

What is shut on the island that Monday

A holiday under the decree is a día inhábil: under article 30.2 of Law 39/2015 the days declared festivos do not count towards deadlines reckoned in days. That the counters are therefore shut does not follow by itself — article 30.8 makes clear that classifying a day as hábil or inhábil does not in itself determine whether administrative offices operate or what hours they keep. On La Gomera the two coincide on 5 October: the day is inhábil, and what is closed is the Cabildo Insular, the six town halls — San Sebastián, Hermigua, Agulo, Vallehermoso, Valle Gran Rey, Alajeró — regional government offices, courts and registries. Banks follow the holidays of the place where the branch stands; schools are closed, within the framework of the Resolución of 17 March 2026 on the 2026/27 school calendar (BOC no. 61 of 30 March 2026).

Retail is blurrier: supermarkets and shops in tourist areas often open on holidays, frequently on shorter hours, and nothing binding is published anywhere. Pharmacies are covered — La Gomera has five duty zones, and the Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Santa Cruz de Tenerife publishes the on-duty rota day by day.

The ferries: what the operators actually publish

For most travellers this is the decisive question, and the answer is that as of 19 September 2026 neither operator has published a special timetable for 5 October. Fred. Olsen Express advertises "up to 5 daily departures" from Los Cristianos to San Sebastián on a 50-minute crossing; the actual times sit behind the date search in the booking system.

Armas Trasmediterránea lists three connections from San Sebastián — Los Cristianos, Santa Cruz de La Palma and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria — and publishes its La Gomera times week by week: the week of 9 to 15 March 2026 appeared on 8 March, and the reinforced Easter timetable for 30 March to 5 April on 29 March, both through the island portal Gomeranoticias. The week of 5 October is therefore unlikely to be public until shortly beforehand. Neither operator lists a direct La Gomera–El Hierro link; that journey goes via Tenerife or Gran Canaria.

Guadalupe, Puntallana and the Bajada every five years

The statue does not stand in the island capital but in a remote hermitage on the north-east coast, the Ermita de Puntallana. Every five years — in years ending in 3 and 8 — she is brought from there to San Sebastián across the sea: according to CanariWiki, run by the Canary government, this is the only Bajada in the Canaries in which the patron leaves her sanctuary by boat, escorted by decorated fishing craft. The last was on 9 October 2023; the next is announced for 2028.

2026 is not a Bajada year, and that turns the day around: the statue does not come to the people, the people go to her. In the intervening years the Virgin leaves the hermitage only for processions in its immediate surroundings — which is how 2025 and 2024 ran, with mass and procession at 12.00. Puntallana is reached on foot or by a steep track whose barrier the Cofradía de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe opens on set days (Gomeranoticias, 30 July 2024).

The 2026 programme has not appeared

Anyone looking for exact times for that Monday will find none today. The Ayuntamiento de San Sebastián de La Gomera had not published its Fiestas de Octubre 2026 programme as of 19 September; its fiestas page carries only the standing rule "Lunes después del primer sábado de octubre — Guadalupe (Puntallana)", and the Guadalupe archive at Gomeranoticias stops at last year. The timing is predictable, though: the 2025 programme appeared on 24 September and the 2024 one on the 25th. Look from the last week of September on sansebastiangomera.org and at Gomeranoticias and Gomera Verde.

A checklist for Monday 5 October. Move anything official on La Gomera — Cabildo, town hall, registry, bank — forward to Friday 2 October or back to Tuesday the 6th. Collect prescriptions beforehand; in an emergency the duty-pharmacy rota of the Colegio de Farmacéuticos applies. Ferries: with Fred. Olsen Express check the times for that exact date in the booking search rather than inferring them from another day; with Armas, wait for the weekly timetable and book the moment it lands. Anyone crossing to or from the island over the long weekend of 3 to 5 October should book early — the traffic concentrates on the 50-minute Los Cristianos–San Sebastián run.

It is a holiday on exactly one island. On 5 October the other six islands and mainland Spain work as normal — courts, the tax office, suppliers, clients. Anyone sitting on La Gomera will get emails and calls like any other Monday; anyone off the island waiting for a reply from a Gomera office will wait in vain. For deadlines, though, the opposite holds: article 30.6 of Law 39/2015 declares a day inhábil “en todo caso” — in every case — where it is inhábil in the municipality or region in which the interested party resides but hábil at the seat of the deciding body, or the other way round. So if you live on La Gomera, a deadline with an authority in Tenerife or Madrid does not keep running on 5 October either. Where a deadline is counted in days, article 30.2 excludes Saturdays, Sundays and the days declared festivos in any case, and if the last day falls on an inhábil day, article 30.5 extends the deadline to the next hábil day. Which days are inhábil locally follows from the calendar of días inhábiles that the Canary Islands publish each year, which under article 30.7 also covers the days of the local authorities in their territory.

FAQ

Is 5 October 2026 a holiday across the Canary Islands?: No. Decreto 61/2025 (BOC no. 88 of 5 May 2025) assigns it to La Gomera alone. The next Canary-wide holiday in October is the 12th, the Fiesta Nacional de España.
Why is it always a Monday?: The town hall's own festivity calendar in San Sebastián names the Monday after the first Saturday in October. The decrees follow it: 2024 the 7th, 2025 the 6th, 2026 the 5th, 2027 the 4th.
Do the ferries to Los Cristianos run that day?: No suspension has been announced anywhere — but neither has a published special timetable. Fred. Olsen Express advertises up to five daily departures on a 50-minute crossing; Armas publishes its times week by week, shortly in advance.
Will the Virgin travel to San Sebastián by boat in 2026?: No. The crossing belongs to the Bajada held every five years — last on 9 October 2023, next in 2028. In the intervening years the statue stays at Puntallana.
Where will the 2026 programme appear?: Nowhere yet. It is expected in the last week of September on sansebastiangomera.org and at Gomeranoticias and Gomera Verde.

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Correction, 27 September 2026: An earlier version said that a deadline with an authority in Tenerife or Madrid keeps running on the island holiday. The opposite is true: under article 30.6 of Law 39/2015, a day that is inhábil in the interested party's municipality or region but hábil at the seat of the deciding body — or the other way round — is treated as inhábil “en todo caso”. The passage on deadlines now also cites articles 30.2, 30.5 and 30.7, and the statement that a día inhábil is for that reason alone a day with no administrative business has been qualified in line with article 30.8.