Planning around public holidays across EU member states is genuinely tricky. Each country runs its own holiday schedule — some fixed to the calendar, some calculated from Easter, and some floating to the nearest Saturday or Monday. This guide covers every major EU country's 2026 public holidays in one place.
Key dates: what all EU countries share
Despite having different national holiday sets, almost every EU member state observes these dates:
- 1 January — New Year's Day
- 1 May — Labour Day (International Workers' Day)
- 25 December — Christmas Day
Easter-related dates (Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday) are also very common, though the specific subset varies by country. Because Easter falls on 5 April in 2026, all Easter-relative holidays shift accordingly.
Easter 2026 and its derived holidays
| Holiday | Offset from Easter | 2026 Date |
|---|---|---|
| Good Friday | −2 days | 3 April 2026 |
| Easter Sunday | 0 | 5 April 2026 |
| Easter Monday | +1 day | 6 April 2026 |
| Ascension Day | +39 days | 14 May 2026 |
| Whit Sunday (Pentecost) | +49 days | 24 May 2026 |
| Whit Monday | +50 days | 25 May 2026 |
| Corpus Christi | +60 days | 4 June 2026 |
Country-by-country highlights for 2026
Germany (11 national holidays + regional)
Germany has 9 universally observed national holidays. Individual states (Bundesländer) add regional ones: Bavaria observes Epiphany (6 Jan), Corpus Christi (4 Jun), and All Saints' Day (1 Nov); Catholic-majority states observe additional feast days. German Unity Day on 3 October is the country's sole purely civic national holiday.
France (11 national holidays)
France applies all 11 holidays uniformly across metropolitan France. The standout dates are Bastille Day (14 July) — France's national day — and Victory in Europe Day (8 May), commemorating the WWII armistice. Overseas territories (DOM-TOM) observe additional local holidays.
Italy (12 national holidays)
Italy's most distinctive holidays are Liberation Day (25 April), marking the end of Fascist occupation in 1945, and Republic Day (2 June). Some cities observe their patron saint's day as a local (non-national) holiday — Florence observes 24 June (St. John the Baptist), as does Turin and Genoa.
Spain (10 national holidays + up to 4 regional)
Spain combines 8 national holidays with up to 2 regional holidays per autonomous community and 1 local feast day per municipality. National Day (12 October) celebrates Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The regional variation means someone in Madrid and someone in Barcelona can have different working calendars even on the same date.
Poland (13 national holidays)
Poland has one of the highest counts of national holidays in the EU. Notable dates include Constitution Day (3 May) — one of the world's earliest written constitutions, 1791 — and Independence Day (11 November), restored after 123 years of partition.
Netherlands (11 official holidays)
King's Day (27 April) is the Netherlands' most celebrated public holiday — streets turn orange for King Willem-Alexander's birthday. Liberation Day (5 May) commemorates liberation from Nazi occupation in 1945; it is a full day off every year, though private sector employers are not legally required to give it as paid leave.
Belgium (10 national holidays)
Belgian National Day (21 July) marks the inauguration of King Leopold I in 1831. Belgium's three linguistic communities each celebrate their own Community Day (11 July for Flemish, 27 September for French, 15 November for German-speaking), though these are not nationwide days off for all workers.
Portugal (13 national holidays)
Portugal has one of the most holiday-rich calendars in the EU. Freedom Day (25 April) commemorates the 1974 Carnation Revolution. Portugal Day (10 June) honours the national poet Luís de Camões. Many municipalities also observe their patron saint's day — Lisbon celebrates St. Anthony's Day on 13 June as a city holiday.
Sweden (13 public holidays / röda dagar)
Sweden has two floating holidays: Midsummer's Day falls on the Saturday between 20–26 June (27 June in 2026), and All Saints' Day falls on the Saturday between 31 October and 6 November (7 November in 2026). National Day (6 June) has been a public holiday only since 2005.
Austria (13 national holidays)
Austria has one of the EU's most generous holiday calendars. National Day (26 October) marks the Declaration of Neutrality in 1955 — distinct from German Unity Day and reflecting Austria's post-WWII path. Religious holidays are particularly prominent: Epiphany, Corpus Christi, Assumption, All Saints' Day, and Immaculate Conception are all national days off.
Planning across borders: practical tips
- Check Easter-relative dates first. Good Friday and Easter Monday alone account for two working days that vary by up to five weeks year to year.
- Regional holidays matter for B2B scheduling. If your team is in Bavaria and you're scheduling a meeting with a Hamburg contact, check both calendars — Bavaria has significantly more holidays.
- Bridge days (Brückentage) multiply effective downtime. When a holiday falls on a Thursday, many workers take Friday off too, creating a four-day weekend. Plan project deadlines around these clusters.
- Always verify with official government sources for legal compliance — this guide is accurate but not a substitute for the official public holiday legislation of each country.
When to plan your 2026 leave
The clusters worth noting for 2026: the Easter window (3–6 April) is the year's most universally observed multi-day cluster. The Ascension / Whit Monday cluster (14–25 May) creates two potential long weekends within 11 days for most of Western Europe. The Christmas to New Year window is effectively a dead zone for cross-border business across the entire EU.
📅