Holiday Calendar

Federal
Holidays

22 days when the government stops, banks close, and your mail does not arrive. New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, plus the rest of the US federal calendar including Juneteenth, MLK Day, Veterans Day, and Presidents' Day. Each one carries its own history of why we get the day off. Browse the year or read what each is actually for.

Subscribe to digest 22 holidays
New Year’s Day JAN 01 Christmas Labor Day SEP 06 Christmas Eve Martin Luther King Day
Labor DayThis month · September6SEP
Federal
Labor Day

The story goes that troops broke the Pullman Strike and Labor Day followed to settle things. The Statutes at Large run the other way: Cleveland signed the act on June 28, 1894, and dated the military proclamation ten days after.

23 results
23 total · calendar order

Browse the year

202601

January

2 holidays
01Jan · FRINew Year’s DayNew Year's Day is the fresh start everyone gets handed at once, whatever kind of year came before it. Stay up for the countdown, eat something meant to bring luck, and send a note to someone you lost touch with.International 75418Jan · MONMartin Luther King DayBefore the Senate voted King a holiday, Jesse Helms asked it to open the FBI's surveillance files on him; it refused, 3 to 90, and passed the bill the next day. The files stay sealed until 2027.United States 366
202602

February

1 holidays
15Feb · MONPresidents’ DayFederal employees take the third Monday in February off under a statute that calls the day Washington's Birthday, a slot the calendar keeps between February 15 and February 21.United States 217
202603

March

2 holidays
09Mar · MONLabour Day AustraliaAll eight of Australia's states and territories give workers a public holiday for the eight-hour day, but on four separate dates and under three names, with no date common to all eight.Australia 009Mar · MONLabour Day AustraliaAll eight of Australia's states and territories give workers a public holiday for the eight-hour day, but on four separate dates and under three names, with no date common to all eight.Australia 0
202605

May

3 holidays
03May · MONEarly May Bank HolidayEvery year the Sovereign signs a proclamation that brings the first Monday in May into being as a bank holiday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland's is simply written into the statute.United Kingdom 2331May · MONMemorial DayThe United States keeps the last Monday in May for the military personnel who died in its service. Soldiers set a small flag at every headstone in Arlington beforehand, and every flag is taken away once the day has passed.United States 31331May · MONSpring Bank HolidayThe spring bank holiday used to move with Easter every year. It now falls on the last Monday in May in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, wherever Easter happens to fall.United Kingdom 23
202606

June

3 holidays
14Jun · MONFlag DayFlag Day is fixed to June 14 by federal statute, but New York's own law puts it on the second Sunday in June, and the two dates agree only three times across 2020 to 2040.United States 19816Jun · WEDYouth DayPolice opened fire on Soweto schoolchildren marching against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction on 16 June 1976. South Africa marks the date each year as a paid public holiday.South Africa 6019Jun · SATJuneteenthEvery June 19 the country marks an order that told Texas all its enslaved people were free, then advised them to remain quietly where they were and work for wages.United States 316
202607

July

2 holidays
01Jul · THUCanada DayThe Holidays Act gives July 1 one sentence: it is "a legal holiday" to be "kept and observed as such throughout Canada under the name of 'Canada Day'." The name in that sentence used to be Dominion Day.Canada 17204Jul · SUNFourth of JulyCongress voted for independence on 2 July 1776, and the engrossed Declaration was signed on 2 August. The fireworks come on 4 July, the day Congress approved the text.United States 145
202608

August

2 holidays
30Aug · MONLate Summer Bank HolidayBanks and many businesses close on the last Monday in August in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar. Scotland's statutory bank holiday is the first Monday of the month instead.International 2430Aug · MONSummer Bank Holiday (England and Wales)England and Wales keep the last Monday in August as a bank holiday because a 1964 government decision moved it there from the first Monday to ease holiday congestion, and a 1971 statute made that permanent.United Kingdom 24
202609

September

Happening now1 holidays
06Sep · MONLabor DayThe story goes that troops broke the Pullman Strike and Labor Day followed to settle things. The Statutes at Large run the other way: Cleveland signed the act on June 28, 1894, and dated the military proclamation ten days after.United States 463
202610

October

1 holidays
12Oct · MONColumbus DayFederal law sets Columbus Day on the second Monday in October, and the same Monday is Native Americans' Day in South Dakota's code and Discoverers' Day in Hawaii's.United States 104
202611

November

2 holidays
11Nov · WEDVeterans DayAmericans set November 11 aside for their veterans. The truce that stopped the fighting in 1918 was written to run 36 days, and had to be renewed three times.United States 31026Nov · THUThanksgivingNovember's fourth Thursday is not always November's last, and the rule reads fourth for exactly that reason. Most of the United States marks the day over dinner; since 1970 Indigenous people have gathered at Plymouth to mourn.United States 243
202612

December

4 holidays
24Dec · THUChristmas EveIn church reckoning the evening of December 24 is already Christmas, not its run-up. In law it is a rest day in Czechia, absent from the nine holidays Germany protects nationwide, and a yearly presidential decision in the US.International 42425Dec · FRIChristmasChristmas takes a different legal shape in every country that writes it down. Britain schedules it only for Scotland, a French employer may lawfully open on it, and Japan's holiday statute leaves December empty.International 49626Dec · SATBoxing DayIreland, South Africa and South Australia each give 26 December a different name in law, and the two Acts behind the English bank holiday never use the one everyone says.International 13831Dec · THUNew Year’s EveDecember 31 closes the year almost everywhere, yet US federal law does not list it among the eleven legal public holidays, and Philippine statute files it under another name: the Last Day of the Year.International 322