Holy Door, 31 December 2026: the countdown to Xacobeo 2027

Updated on 28 September 2026.

If you have heard the word «Xacobeo» without being sure what it means, you are in good company. The Compostelan Holy Year is probably the single thing that changes Santiago most of everything covered in this guide, and 2027 is going to be one. Here is what it means and why it is worth planning around. For the full detail — dates, the Holy Door ceremony and when to come — we have the complete Holy Year guide.

What a Holy Year actually is

A Xacobeo happens only when 25 July — the feast of Saint James — falls on a Sunday. Because the calendar does not hand out Sundays at regular intervals, the gap between one Holy Year and the next is not fixed: it follows an irregular cycle of 6, 5, 6 and 11 years. During a Holy Year, pilgrims who complete the Camino, visit the Cathedral of Santiago and cross the Holy Door can obtain a plenary indulgence, one of the central acts of the Jacobean tradition.

The recent precedent: the double Xacobeo of 2021-2022

The last Holy Year did not follow the usual script. The COVID-19 pandemic led to it being extended exceptionally into a double cycle, 2021-2022, so that the 2021 Xacobeo could be lived properly the following year. It was an anomaly within the historical calendar of the Camino. With the natural rhythm resumed, the next Holy Year — the first «normal» one since then — is 2027.

When the Holy Door opens

The Holy Door, also called the Door of Forgiveness, stays shut the rest of the time and opens only during a Holy Year. The opening for Xacobeo 2027 will be on 31 December 2026, at midday — a time brought forward by the Archdiocese on 24 September 2026, without giving an exact hour, and not yet reflected in the Cathedral's liturgical calendar — in a ceremony in the Praza da Quintana where the Archbishop strikes three times with a silver hammer and opens the door with a key. No stone wall is knocked down any more: none was built in 2020, to avoid raising dust inside the freshly restored Cathedral. From that moment the door stays open every day of the year, until it closes again on 31 December 2027.

The next Holy Years

After 2027 the calendar spaces out again along the same irregular pattern. The Xacobeos that follow, barring another exceptional change like the one in 2021, fall in 2032, 2038 and 2049.

2026, the year we are in, is not a Holy Year: the Holy Door stays shut until it opens at the end of December. Which is precisely why it is a good moment to see Santiago at a calmer pace, before the big year starts.