California State Holidays 2027

Two California holiday lists, applied to 2027

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 2027 the section 6700 days that section 19853 leaves out fall like this: Juneteenth on Saturday, June 19, Admission Day on Thursday, September 9, Native American Day on Friday, September 24 and Columbus Day on Monday, October 11. 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 is a Wednesday in 2027. Section 6700 calls it Farmworkers Day in the text in force since March 26, 2026 (the text archived in June 2024 said Cesar Chavez Day); section 19853 names only the date.

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.

Why 2027 gives California fewer working days

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. 2027 runs 365 days, 52 whole weeks and one day over. It opens and closes on a Friday, so the spare day is a weekday and the year holds 261 of them.

Twelve federal holidays in this page's count fall on weekdays, so California has 249 working days in 2027. That is one fewer than 2026 (250). The weekday supply is identical, so the whole change comes from holidays: one more of them lands on a weekday. 2028 rises to 250.

Saturday and Sunday holidays in 2027

A fixed-date holiday on a weekend is where the federal, Reserve Bank and state calendars part company. For most federal employees a Saturday holiday moves to the Friday and a Sunday one to the Monday (5 U.S.C. 6103(b) and Executive Order 11582, as OPM applies them); the Federal Reserve Banks follow the Monday rule but not the Friday one; and California has its own rule. In 2027:

• Juneteenth falls on Saturday, June 19; most federal employees have Friday, June 18 as the holiday instead. The Federal Reserve Banks are open that Friday; the Board of Governors is closed. Section 19853(a) does not list June 19 among the state-employee holidays, so Friday, June 18 is not a holiday on the California calendar; subdivision (e) lets an employee choose eight hours of holiday credit for June 19 in place of the personal holiday credit.
• Independence Day falls on Sunday, July 4; most federal employees have Monday, July 5 as the holiday. The Federal Reserve Banks are closed that Monday too. Section 19853(b) makes Monday, July 5 the California holiday as well.
• Christmas Day falls on Saturday, December 25; most federal employees have Friday, December 24 as the holiday instead. The Federal Reserve Banks are open that Friday; the Board of Governors is closed. Friday, December 24 is not a California state-employee holiday. Section 19853(b) moves no Saturday holiday except November 11, and CalHR gives employees holiday credit instead.
• New Year's Day 2028 falls on Saturday, January 1, 2028, so its federal in-lieu day lands in 2027, on Friday, December 31. The Federal Reserve Banks are open that Friday; the Board of Governors is closed. Friday, December 31 is not a California state-employee holiday. Section 19853(b) moves no Saturday holiday except November 11, and CalHR gives employees holiday credit instead.

This page's count leaves out the Friday or Monday that federal employees have as the holiday, because the count follows the federal employees' holidays. A count on the Federal Reserve Banks' schedule has one more business day across each of those Fridays.

Where California's own calendar departs from the count in 2027

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 Farmworkers Day on Wednesday, March 31 and Day after Thanksgiving on Friday, November 26 as holidays, which the federal count treats as working days. The federal count takes out Juneteenth (observed) on Friday, June 18, Columbus Day on Monday, October 11, Christmas Day (observed) on Friday, December 24, and New Year's Day 2028 (observed) on Friday, December 31, which the California calendar does not.

On balance the California calendar has 251 working days in 2027, two more than the 249 this page counts.

Where the fixed-date holidays land in 2027

A holiday tied to a calendar date moves one weekday later each year, so the week it breaks changes every year while its date stays put. Against 2026, each of these has moved one weekday on:

• New Year's Day is a Friday in 2027, after a Thursday in 2026, so on this page's count the weekend after it becomes three days off.
• March 31 is a Wednesday in 2027, after a Tuesday in 2026: a midweek break that leaves two working days on each side of it on the California calendar.
• Juneteenth is a Saturday in 2027, after a Friday in 2026, a weekend day, so the date itself takes no working day on this page's count; the weekend rules above decide whether a weekday is given for it.
• Independence Day is a Sunday in 2027, after a Saturday in 2026, a weekend day, so the date itself takes no working day on this page's count; the weekend rules above decide whether a weekday is given for it.
• Veterans Day is a Thursday in 2027, after a Wednesday in 2026, which leaves Friday, November 12 as a single working day before the weekend on this page's count.
• Christmas Day is a Saturday in 2027, after a Friday in 2026, a weekend day, so the date itself takes no working day on this page's count; the weekend rules above decide whether a weekday is given for it.

Ten long weekends in 2027

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 ten such breaks in 2027:

• Friday, January 1 to Sunday, January 3: three days, for New Year's Day.
• Saturday, January 16 to Monday, January 18: three days, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• Saturday, February 13 to Monday, February 15: three days, for Presidents' Day.
• Saturday, May 29 to Monday, May 31: three days, for Memorial Day.
• Friday, June 18 to Sunday, June 20: three days, for Juneteenth (observed).
• Saturday, July 3 to Monday, July 5: three days, for Independence Day (observed).
• Saturday, September 4 to Monday, September 6: three days, for Labor Day.
• Saturday, October 9 to Monday, October 11: three days, for Columbus Day.
• Friday, December 24 to Sunday, December 26: three days, for Christmas Day (observed).
• Friday, December 31 to Sunday, January 2, 2028: three days, for New Year's Day 2028 (observed).

On the California calendar the breaks differ: Thursday, November 25 to Sunday, November 28 (four days). Those follow the state's own holidays and do not change this page's count.

Stranded working days in 2027

A holiday on a Tuesday or a Thursday leaves one working day stranded between it and the weekend. In 2027 California has two: Friday, November 12, next to Veterans Day and Friday, November 26, next to Thanksgiving Day. Each is a full working day on this page's count even though a day off sits on either side, so a deadline that lands on one is not pushed anywhere.

California month by month, 2027

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.

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, 2027

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 2027 it runs from Tuesday, February 16 to Friday, May 28 inside the first half of the year: 74 working days, 14 full working weeks and four days.

The first working day of 2027 on this count is Monday, January 4, after New Year's Day. The last is Thursday, December 30, which is the latest date a count of working days can end on inside 2027.

Which calendar the 2027 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. It is not identical to the Federal Reserve Banks' calendar. The Board of Governors' K.8 schedule states that the Federal Reserve Banks are open on the Friday before a Saturday holiday, and in 2027 that means Friday, June 18, Friday, December 24, and Friday, December 31. A count on the Reserve Banks' schedule has one more business day across each of those Fridays than this page's count shows.

California's state-employee calendar (Government Code section 19853) is shown in the table and never subtracted from the count.