California State Holidays 2024
Last reviewed: October 14, 2026 · Holiday data: September 11, 2026
California's own holiday calendar for 2024 is listed below under Government Code section 19853, next to the federal holidays this page counts. The business-day total follows the federal list in 5 U.S.C. 6103, taking each holiday on the day federal employees have it, and gives 2024 251 working days; California's own days are marked in the table and never subtracted.
How California's holidays differ from the federal set
California's state-employee holidays, set by Government Code section 19853, add March 31 and the day after Thanksgiving to the federal list and leave out Juneteenth and Columbus Day: neither is in the list in section 19853(a), and subdivision (e) only lets an employee choose eight hours of holiday credit for June 19 in place of the personal holiday credit. Section 6700 has called March 31 Farmworkers Day since an amendment effective March 26, 2026. A Sunday holiday moves to the Monday and a Saturday November 11 to the Friday before; for any other Saturday holiday CalHR gives state employees holiday credit instead of another day off. Section 6700's longer list of "holidays in this state" is a different measure and is explained below.
California holidays beyond the federal list (2024)
- Cesar Chavez Day (observed) (Monday, April 1)
- Day after Thanksgiving (Friday, November 29)
Federal holiday dates not on California's list (2024)
- Juneteenth (Wednesday, June 19)
- Columbus Day (Monday, October 14)
California holiday calendar 2024
| Date | Day | Holiday |
|---|---|---|
| January 1 | Monday | New Year's Day |
| January 15 | Monday | Martin Luther King Jr. Day |
| February 19 | Monday | Presidents' Day |
| April 1 | Monday | Cesar Chavez Day (observed)state holiday |
| May 27 | Monday | Memorial Day |
| June 19 | Wednesday | Juneteenthfederal only |
| July 4 | Thursday | Independence Day |
| September 2 | Monday | Labor Day |
| October 14 | Monday | Columbus Dayfederal only |
| November 11 | Monday | Veterans Day |
| November 28 | Thursday | Thanksgiving Day |
| November 29 | Friday | Day after Thanksgivingstate holiday |
| December 25 | Wednesday | Christmas Day |
2024 summary
Total days
366
Weekend days
104
Federal holidays on weekdays
11
Working days
251
After 104 weekend days and 11 weekday federal holidays, 2024 has 251 working days on the federal count. California's own holidays are not subtracted; the section below shows how its calendar would change the total.
Federal Reserve and FedACH counts around Saturday holidays
This calendar combines federal and California holidays, and its business-day count takes each federal holiday on the day federal employees have it. When a holiday falls on a Saturday, 5 U.S.C. 6103(b) makes the Friday before it the legal public holiday for employees whose basic workweek is Monday through Friday (the Office of Personnel Management says the same of most federal employees, for pay and leave purposes), so this page's count leaves that Friday out. The Federal Reserve Banks are open that Friday. A count on the Reserve Banks' schedule, which the same page sets out for FedACH, therefore has one more business day across one of those Fridays than this page's count shows. Whether California also treats that Friday as a holiday is a separate question, settled by its own holiday rules.
Sources: U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo), 5 U.S.C. 6103(b); U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Federal Holidays; Federal Reserve Financial Services, Holiday Schedules. Checked October 12, 2026. All sources
California in 2024: how the calendar falls
Every figure below is computed from the 2024 dates in the table above and the Monday to Friday week, and each rule names the provision or the official list it is taken from. When a date changes, the sentences change with it.
Two California holiday lists, applied to 2024
This page draws on two holiday lists in California's Government Code, and they do not agree. Section 19853 entitles state employees to eleven dated holidays: January 1, the third Mondays of January and February, March 31, the last Monday in May, July 4, the first Monday in September, November 11, Thanksgiving Day, the day after Thanksgiving, and December 25. It adds the personal holiday an employee chooses under section 19854 and every day the Governor appoints. Section 6700, the list of "holidays in this state", is far longer. It also names Juneteenth, Columbus Day, Lincoln Day (February 12), Genocide Remembrance Day (April 24), Admission Day (September 9), Native American Day (the fourth Friday in September), Lunar New Year, Diwali, Good Friday from noon to 3 p.m., and every Sunday. The calendar on this page follows the dated holidays of section 19853, the days state employees are entitled to as holidays.
In 2024 the section 6700 days that section 19853 leaves out fall like this: Juneteenth on Wednesday, June 19, Admission Day on Monday, September 9, Native American Day on Friday, September 27 and Columbus Day on Monday, October 14. None of the four is a state-employee holiday under section 19853; subdivision (e) instead lets an employee choose eight hours of holiday credit for Juneteenth or Native American Day in place of the personal holiday credit. Juneteenth and Columbus Day are federal holidays, so both stay in this page's business-day count.
March 31 fell on a Sunday in 2024, so under section 19853(b) the state holiday was Monday, April 1. The text of section 6700 archived in June 2024 calls March 31 Cesar Chavez Day; the text in force since March 26, 2026 calls it Farmworkers Day.
Section 19853(b) moves a Sunday holiday to the Monday after and a Saturday November 11 to the Friday before. It moves no other Saturday holiday; CalHR states that employees then receive holiday credit.
How California's 2024 total is built
A year's working days are its weekdays minus the holidays that land on them, and both halves move. The weekday supply depends only on the year's length and the weekday it starts on; the holiday half depends on where each fixed date falls that year. 2024 is a leap year: 52 whole weeks plus two days, and both spare days are weekdays (a Monday and a Tuesday), which gives it 262 weekdays, the most a year can hold.
Eleven federal holidays in this page's count fall on weekdays, so California has 251 working days in 2024. 2025 falls to 250.
No weekend holidays in 2024
When a fixed-date holiday lands on a Saturday or Sunday, each calendar on this page answers differently: for federal employees on a Monday-to-Friday week the holiday moves to the nearest weekday, the Federal Reserve Banks take the Monday but not the Friday, and California applies its own rule. In 2024 none of the fixed dates (January 1, June 19, July 4, November 11, December 25) falls on a weekend, so the question never arises and every shared holiday is on its own date in all three.
Where California's own calendar departs from the count in 2024
The count on this page and California's state-employee calendar (Government Code section 19853) differ only where one of them has a holiday on a weekday and the other does not. The California calendar has Cesar Chavez Day (observed) on Monday, April 1 and Day after Thanksgiving on Friday, November 29 as holidays, which the federal count treats as working days. The federal count takes out Juneteenth on Wednesday, June 19 and Columbus Day on Monday, October 14, which the California calendar does not.
The two cancel out: both calendars give 251 working days in 2024, on different dates.
Where the fixed-date holidays land in 2024
A holiday tied to a calendar date moves one weekday later each year, and two once 29 February has passed, so the week it breaks changes every year while its date stays put. 2024 is a leap year, so every date from March onward jumps two weekdays against 2023:
- New Year's Day is a Monday in 2024, after a Sunday in 2023, so on this page's count it turns the weekend before it into three days off.
- March 31 is a Sunday in 2024, after a Friday in 2023, a weekend day, so the date itself takes no working day on the California calendar; the weekend rules above decide whether a weekday is given for it.
- Juneteenth is a Wednesday in 2024, after a Monday in 2023: a midweek break that leaves two working days on each side of it on this page's count.
- Independence Day is a Thursday in 2024, after a Tuesday in 2023, which leaves Friday, July 5 as a single working day before the weekend on this page's count.
- Veterans Day is a Monday in 2024, after a Saturday in 2023, so on this page's count it turns the weekend before it into three days off.
- Christmas Day is a Wednesday in 2024, after a Monday in 2023: a midweek break that leaves two working days on each side of it on this page's count.
Six long weekends in 2024
A weekday holiday next to a weekend turns two days off into three; two closures side by side, or one on each side of a weekend, make four or more. That is arithmetic on the dates, so the list moves every year even when the holidays do not. On this page's count, California has six such breaks in 2024:
- Saturday, January 13 to Monday, January 15: three days, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
- Saturday, February 17 to Monday, February 19: three days, for Presidents' Day.
- Saturday, May 25 to Monday, May 27: three days, for Memorial Day.
- Saturday, August 31 to Monday, September 2: three days, for Labor Day.
- Saturday, October 12 to Monday, October 14: three days, for Columbus Day.
- Saturday, November 9 to Monday, November 11: three days, for Veterans Day.
On the California calendar the breaks differ: Saturday, March 30 to Monday, April 1 (three days) and Thursday, November 28 to Sunday, December 1 (four days). Those follow the state's own holidays and do not change this page's count.
Bridge days and midweek breaks in 2024
A holiday on a Tuesday or a Thursday strands a single working day between it and the weekend; a Wednesday one splits the week into two short runs instead. 2024 has both kinds. The stranded days are Friday, July 5, next to Independence Day and Friday, November 29, next to Thanksgiving Day.
The midweek closures are Juneteenth on Wednesday, June 19 and Christmas Day on Wednesday, December 25. A deadline counted across a Wednesday holiday loses its day in the middle of the week, not at either end, so a count that steps through the week one day at a time has to skip it there.
California month by month, 2024
A month's working days are its weekdays less the holidays on them, so a month with no weekday holiday is set entirely by how its weekdays fall, and every holiday that lands midweek takes one day off the month it sits in.
| Month | Working days, this count | Working days, California calendar | Weekday holidays |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 21 | 21 | New Year's Day (January 1) and Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 15) |
| February | 20 | 20 | Presidents' Day (February 19) |
| March | 21 | 21 | none |
| April | 22 | 21 | none |
| May | 22 | 22 | Memorial Day (May 27) |
| June | 19 | 20 | Juneteenth (June 19) |
| July | 22 | 22 | Independence Day (July 4) |
| August | 22 | 22 | none |
| September | 20 | 20 | Labor Day (September 2) |
| October | 22 | 23 | Columbus Day (October 14) |
| November | 19 | 18 | Veterans Day (November 11) and Thanksgiving Day (November 28) |
| December | 21 | 21 | Christmas Day (December 25) |
The second column follows the federal set this page counts. The third follows California's state-employee calendar (Government Code section 19853), for readers dealing with that calendar directly.
California's longest stretch without a holiday, 2024
The longest run of working days with no weekday holiday inside it depends on how far apart consecutive closures sit, so it moves whenever one fixed-date holiday changes weekday. In 2024 it runs from Tuesday, February 20 to Friday, May 24 inside the first half of the year: 69 working days, 13 full working weeks and four days.
The first working day of 2024 on this count is Tuesday, January 2, after New Year's Day. The last is Tuesday, December 31, which is the latest date a count of working days can end on inside 2024.
Which calendar the 2024 count uses
The working-day total counts the legal public holidays of 5 U.S.C. 6103 on the dates most federal employees have them, as OPM publishes them. The Federal Reserve Banks part from that list only on the Friday before a Saturday holiday (the Board of Governors' K.8 schedule), and 2024 has no Saturday holiday, so this page's count and the Reserve Banks' calendar leave out the same eleven weekdays this year.
California's state-employee calendar (Government Code section 19853) is shown in the table and never subtracted from the count.
Statutes and schedules cited in this section
Each rule above comes from one of these sources or from the holiday data source below.
- California Legislative Information: Government Code § 19853 (opens in a new tab)
- California Legislative Information: Government Code § 6700 (opens in a new tab)
- California Department of Industrial Relations: Notice of 30 March 2026 on Government Code section 6700 (Farmworkers Day, Diwali) (opens in a new tab)
- California Legislative Information (Internet Archive capture of 16 June 2024): Government Code § 6700 as archived on 16 June 2024 (opens in a new tab)
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Federal Holidays (opens in a new tab)
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System: Holidays Observed - K.8 (opens in a new tab)
Sources and verification
Official source: calhr.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)
Cross-checked against this source on September 11, 2026.