Holiday Data Methodology

This calculator covers public holidays for 25 countries. Each country uses a conservative national or federal holiday set, with state, provincial, and bank-only days excluded. The detail below documents what is included per country, how weekend observance is handled, and how lunar and Islamic dates are computed for forward years.

What we cover by country

Each country's holiday list reflects the dates that close federal offices, banks, and the national payment system. Citations point to the controlling statute or gazette where one exists.

• US: the 11 federal holidays under 5 USC 6103. Inauguration Day (DC only) excluded.
• UK: bank holidays for England and Wales. Scotland's 2 January and St Andrew's Day, and Northern Ireland's 17 March and 12 July, are not observed UK-wide and are excluded.
• Canada: federal statutory holidays under Part III of the Canada Labour Code. Civic Holiday is provincial and excluded. National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is included.
• Australia: nationally observed public holidays. State-specific days (state Labour Days, Melbourne Cup, Queen's Birthday state shifts) excluded.
• India: centrally observed gazetted holidays. State-specific and restricted (optional) holidays excluded.
• Philippines: regular national holidays under the Administrative Code of 1987. Special non-working days (annual presidential proclamation) excluded because they vary year to year.
• Germany: the 9 bundesweite Feiertage. Bundesland-specific days (Reformationstag, Allerheiligen, Heilige Drei Könige, Fronleichnam) excluded.
• France: the 11 national jours fériés. Alsace-Moselle's Good Friday and 26 December excluded.
• Japan: the 16 kokumin no shukujitsu, plus furikae kyūjitsu (Sunday substitutes) and kokumin no kyūjitsu (Citizens' Holiday).
• Singapore: all 11 gazetted public holidays under the Holidays Act. Sunday-falling holidays add a Monday substitute; Saturday-falling holidays are not shifted.
• Mexico: the 7 mandatory holidays in Article 74 LFT, with the 2006 Monday-observance reform applied to Constitution Day, Benito Juárez's birthday, and Revolution Day. Presidential transmission day (1 December every six years) included in the relevant years.
• Ireland: the 10 public holidays under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, including St Brigid's Day (added 2023 by the Sick Leave Act 2022). Northern Ireland holidays such as the Battle of the Boyne are not in this set.
• New Zealand: the 12 public holidays under the Holidays Act 2003, including Matariki (added 2022). Provincial anniversary days (Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago, and others) are regional and excluded.
• South Africa: the 12 public holidays under the Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994. Sunday-falling holidays shift to the following Monday under section 2; Saturday-falling holidays are absorbed into the weekend.
• Brazil: the 13 federal feriados nacionais including Dia da Consciência Negra (federal since 2024 under Lei nº 14.759/2023). Carnival Monday-Tuesday and Corpus Christi are facultative federal but observed nationwide.
• Spain: the national fiestas laborables set annually by Real Decreto. Comunidad Autónoma-set regional fiestas (Sant Jordi, Día de Andalucía, Día del País Vasco) and municipal patron-saint days excluded.
• Italy: the 11 national festività including Santo Stefano (December 26); Easter Sunday is statutorily a festività but always falls on Sunday so it is not listed separately. Municipal Festa del Patrono dates (San Giovanni in Florence, Sant'Ambrogio in Milan, San Petronio in Bologna) excluded.
• United Arab Emirates: federal public holidays per UAE Cabinet annual decree, including Islamic lunar dates. Federal public sector moved from Friday-Saturday to Saturday-Sunday weekend in January 2022; private sector largely aligned. Free zones (ADGM, DIFC) may follow western weekends.
• Saudi Arabia: Founding Day (22 February), Saudi National Day (23 September), Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha. Sunday-Thursday workweek; Friday-Saturday weekend.
• Qatar: Qatar National Sports Day (second Tuesday of February), Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Qatar National Day (18 December). Sunday-Thursday workweek; Friday-Saturday weekend.
• Israel: major Jewish national days (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover, Shavuot) under the Hours of Work and Rest Law, plus Yom Ha'atzmaut. Sunday-Thursday workweek; Friday-Saturday (Shabbat) weekend.
• Egypt: 16-17 national holidays combining civil days (Revolution Day, Sinai Liberation, June 30 Revolution, 1952 Revolution, Armed Forces Day), Islamic lunar holidays, Coptic Christmas (7 January), and Sham El Nessim. Sunday-Thursday workweek; Friday-Saturday weekend.
• China: public holidays per State Council annual gazette. Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and National Day each run 7-8 days as multi-day Golden Weeks. Adjacent weekend make-up workdays are gazetted to balance the calendar; Hong Kong (SAR), Macau (SAR), and Taiwan operate separate calendars and are excluded.
• Vietnam: 11 statutory public holiday days under Article 112 of the Labour Code 2019. Tet (Lunar New Year) is gazetted annually at 5-9 days. Hung Kings Commemoration Day (10th day of 3rd lunar month) and National Day (September 2-3) anchor the civil calendar.
• Switzerland: only Neujahrstag (1 January), Bundesfeiertag (1 August), and Weihnachten (25 December) are federally binding. This calculator adds the widely-observed Catholic-tradition days (Karfreitag, Ostermontag, Auffahrt, Pfingstmontag, Stephanstag) that SIX Swiss Exchange and Swiss banks treat as closure days. Cantonal additions (Berchtoldstag, Allerheiligen, Fronleichnam) are excluded.

What we exclude and why

Regional, provincial, state, and bank-only holidays are excluded by design. Maintaining per-state data across 25 countries, with frequent sub-national revisions, is more error-prone than shipping a conservative national set and letting users add their state-level dates.

Concrete consequences: Civic Holiday is not in our Canada set; Patriots' Day is not in our US set; Reformationstag is not in our Germany set; state Labour Days are not in our Australia set. Each calculator has an Advanced options section that accepts custom dates merged with the country list, so you can add the holidays that apply to your jurisdiction.

How we handle observed dates

Different countries shift weekend-falling holidays differently. We follow each country's own rule:

• US: Saturday-falling holidays observed the preceding Friday; Sunday-falling holidays observed the following Monday (5 CFR 610.202 and E.O. 11582). The Federal Reserve and most banks follow the federal observance.
• UK: weekend-falling holidays shifted to the next available weekday by Royal Proclamation under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971. Christmas Day on a Saturday gives a Tuesday substitute (because Boxing Day takes Monday).
• Canada: federal statutory holidays under section 195 of the Canada Labour Code shift to the next working day.
• Australia: most jurisdictions shift weekend holidays to the following Monday under each state's Public Holidays Act, with state variations. ANZAC Day is observed on the actual day in several states regardless of weekend.
• Germany, France: weekend-falling holidays absorb into the weekend with no substitute weekday. A Sunday-falling Tag der Deutschen Einheit is the end of it; no Monday off.
• Japan: Sunday-falling holidays shift to the following Monday under the furikae kyūjitsu system. A non-holiday weekday between two holidays becomes a kokumin no kyūjitsu (Citizens' Holiday).
• Singapore: Sunday-falling holidays add a Monday substitute. Saturday-falling holidays are not shifted.
• Mexico: three reform-era holidays shift to the nearest Monday under the 2006 reform; others absorb into the weekend with no substitute.
• Ireland: weekend-falling New Year's Day, St Patrick's Day, Christmas Day, and St Stephen's Day shift to the next working day under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.
• New Zealand: six holidays Mondayised under the Holidays Act 2003 (New Year's Day, Day after New Year's Day, Waitangi Day, ANZAC Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day); fixed-Monday and variable holidays not Mondayised.
• South Africa: Sunday-falling holidays shift to the following Monday under section 2 of the Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994; Saturday-falling holidays absorb into the weekend.
• Brazil, Spain, Italy: weekend-falling national holidays absorb into the weekend with no substitute weekday under standard interpretation; some Spanish Comunidades may declare substitute Mondays by Real Decreto. Because no national substitute applies, the data still lists each festività on its actual calendar date even when it lands on a Saturday or Sunday, matching how the BOE, Normattiva, and the Brazilian planalto each publish them.
• UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt: Islamic lunar holidays may shift by one day from astronomical prediction once the official moon-sighting is announced; we follow the gazetted dates where available and astronomical for forward years.
• Israel: Yom Ha'atzmaut (5 Iyar) shifts to an adjacent weekday when it would fall on Friday or Saturday under the Yom Ha'atzmaut Law. Other Jewish holidays follow the Hebrew lunisolar calendar.
• Philippines, India: weekend handling is proclamation-driven; we follow official observed-date data.
• China: holiday closures are gazetted as date ranges by the State Council. The make-up working Saturdays surrounding Golden Weeks are NOT added back as working days in this calculator; the conservative B2B count uses only the gazetted closure dates.
• Vietnam: Tet make-up working Saturdays gazetted by the Government are NOT added back as working days. Weekend-falling civil holidays may shift by Government decree but this is not automatic.
• Switzerland: weekend-falling holidays absorb into the weekend with no automatic substitute weekday under federal law. Cantonal practice varies. The data still lists each Feiertag on its actual calendar date even when it lands on a Saturday or Sunday.

For a deeper comparison of weekend observance rules across the four major English-speaking jurisdictions, see the guide on weekend observance.

How we handle lunar and Islamic dates

India (Diwali, Eid'l Fitr, Eid'l Adha), Philippines (Eid'l Fitr, Eid'l Adha), and Singapore (Hari Raya Puasa, Hari Raya Haji, Vesak Day, Deepavali, Chinese New Year) observe holidays whose dates are set by lunar or Islamic calendars and shift year to year.

For years where the relevant ministry has published official dates (typically the current year and one year forward), we use the published dates exactly. For years beyond that horizon we compute dates astronomically and tag them (approximate) in the holiday list. Approximate dates land within one day of the eventual proclamation in the great majority of cases; Islamic dates can adjust by a day based on local moon-sighting committees. For legally critical deadlines near a lunar or Islamic holiday, verify the date against the official source: MOM (Singapore), the Office of the President (Philippines), or the Ministry of Home Affairs (India).

Update cadence

We review the holiday data annually, typically in November and December as official calendars are published for the following year. Proclamation-driven dates (Philippine Eid'l Fitr, Singapore Hari Raya, Indian gazette holidays) are updated as soon as the ministry publishes them, which is usually October to December for the following year.

Coverage spans 2024 through 2029 for all 25 countries. We extend forward each year to maintain a three-year forward window from the current date.

Sources and audit trail

Every country's holiday list carries a canonical official source URL, pointing at the relevant gazette, ministry of labour, central bank calendar, or public-holidays statute. Each list also records the ISO date it was last reviewed against that source plus one independent third-party reference. If you want to verify a specific date yourself, open the country's JSON file in data/holidays/ and follow the source field to the controlling authority.

Structural drift, such as invalid dates, duplicates, or holiday counts outside a defensible per-country band, is caught automatically by the test suite. A scheduled check also flags any (approximate) lunar entry that is within six months of becoming observable, so the gazetted date can replace the astronomical estimate as soon as the official proclamation is published.

What to do if you find an error

If you spot an incorrect date or a missing holiday, please get in touch. Include the country, the date, and the source you are referencing (typically a government calendar or proclamation). We typically push corrections within a few days of confirmation.

For the underlying data files and the calculation logic, the holiday module is open and reviewable in the calculator's source. Each country's holiday list is a JSON file structured as year keys mapping to arrays of date and name pairs.