CULTURE - TRADITION - DIETARY HABITS
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Religious composition
St. Eulalia’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Barcelona.
The major religion in Spain has been Catholic Christianity since the Reconquista, with a small minority of other Christian and non-Christian religions and high levels of secularization as of 2020[update]. The Pew Research Center ranked Spain as the 16th out of 34 European countries in levels of religiosity, which is lower than Italy, Portugal and Poland, but much higher than the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries.[2] There is no official religion and religious freedom is protected: the Spanish Constitution of 1978 abolished Catholicism as the official state religion, while recognizing the role it plays in Spanish society.
Catholicism has been present in the Iberian Peninsula since Roman times.[4][5] The Spanish Empire spread it to the Philippine islands and Latin America, which are now predominantly Catholic countries.[6][7][8] However, since the end of the Francoist dictatorship practical secularization has grew strongly.[9][1][10][11][12][13] Only 3% of Spaniards consider religion as one of their three most important values, even lower than the 5% European average.
A Survey published in 2019 by the Pew Research Center found that 54% of Spaniards had a favorable view of Muslims, while 76% had a favorable view about Jews. Spain has been seen as a graveyard for Protestant missionaries: only 1% of the population of Spain is Protestant and 92% of Spain’s 8,131 villages do not have any evangelical protestant church.
According to the Spanish Center for Sociological Research, 71.1% of Spanish citizens self-identify as Catholics, (46.6% define themselves as not practising, while 24.5% as practising), 2.3% as followers of other faiths (including Islam, Protestant Christianity, Buddhism etc.), and 25.4% identify as atheists (11.1%), agnostics (6.5%) or non-believers (7.8%) as of October 2019[update]. Most Spaniards do not participate regularly in religious worship. This same study shows that of the Spaniards who identify themselves as religious, 29.1% never attend mass, 30.8% barely ever attend mass, 16.2% attend mass a few times a year, 7.4% two or three times per month, 13.0% every Sunday holidays, and 2.1% multiple times per week.
Although a majority of Spaniards self-identify as Catholics, many younger generations ignore the Church’s moral doctrines on issues such as pre-marital sex, sexual orientation, marriage or contraception.[10][11][21][22][12][13] The total number of parish priests shrank from 24,300 in 1975 to 18,500 in 2018, with an average age of 65.5 years.[23][24][25] By contrast, some expressions of popular religiosity still thrive, often linked to local festivals
Religious self-definition in Spain (October 2019 CIS survey)
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Popular religion: However, some expressions of popular religiosity still thrive, often linked to Christian festivals and local patron saints. World-famous examples include the Holy Week in Seville, the Romería de El Rocío in Huelva or the Mystery Play of Elche, while the Sanfermines in Pamplona and the Falles of Valencia have mostly lost their original religious nature. The continuing success of these festivals is the result of a mix of religious, cultural, social and economic factors including sincere devotion, local or family traditions, non-religious fiesta and partying, perceived beauty, cultural significance, territorial identity, meeting friends and relatives, increased sales and a massive influx of tourists to the largest ones. The Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is not so popular among Spaniards but it attracts many visitors too. Most if not all cities and towns celebrate a patron saint’s festival or similar, no matter how small or known, which often includes processions, Mass and the like but whose actual religious following is variable and sometimes merely nominal.
Another trend among Spanish believers is syncretism, often defined as religión a la carta. In religion à la carte, people mix popular Roman Catholic beliefs and traditions with their own worldview and/or esoteric, self-help, New Age or philosophical borrowings they like, resulting in a unique personal ‘soft’ spirituality without any possible church. These people typically self-define themselves as Catholics, but they only attend church for christenings, funerals or weddings and are not actual followers. Unbelievers are, by definition, not syncretic or otherwise.
The Basharat Mosque in Pedro Abad, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, was the first mosque to be built in modern Spain.
Islam: the recent waves of immigration, especially during and after the 1990s, have led to an increasing number of Muslims and Protestants. Nowadays, Islam is the second largest religion, but far behind Roman Catholicism and irreligion. A study made by Unión de comunidades islámicas de España showed that there were almost 1,900,000 inhabitants of Muslim background living in Spain in 2016 (4% of the total population.) The vast majority was composed of immigrants and descendants originating from Morocco and other North African/Arab countries. Almost 780,000 of them had Spanish nationality.
Judaism in Spain: account for less than 0.2 percent of the population, mostly in Barcelona, Madrid and Murcia.
Minor religions: The Buddhist Benalmádena Stupa opened in 2003 in Andalusia is considered the largest in Europe.
Besides various varieties of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and the non-religious, Spain also has small groups of Hindus, Buddhists, Pagans, Taoists, and Bahá’ís.
Buddhism didn’t arrive in Spain until the late 20th century. According to an estimation, there are around 65,000 followers and an indeterminate number of sympathizers.[citation needed] However, some of its teachings, like reincarnation or karma, have partially syncretized with the cultural mainstream via New Age-style movements.
