Public and Federal Holidays

What happens when a holiday falls at a weekend

This is where holiday counts diverge most, and where almost every site is loose about something the law is precise about.

In the United States, federal law at 5 U.S.C. § 6103(b) provides that where a holiday falls on a Saturday, the Friday immediately before is the legal public holiday for employees whose basic working week is Monday to Friday. Executive Order 11582 of 1971 covers the Sunday case, excusing an employee from work on the next working day.

Note who that applies to. Both rules are written for federal employees. They are not a general national rule for the public or for private employers. Banks, schools and private businesses follow the convention rather than an obligation, and they do not all follow it identically. A great many sites state the substitution as though it binds everyone. It does not.

In the United Kingdom a bank holiday at a weekend gets a substitute weekday, taken as the next working day not already a bank holiday. That is why Christmas Day on a Saturday produces days off on the following Monday and Tuesday. In some countries there is no substitute at all: the holiday falls at a weekend and is simply lost that year.

The tables here show both the nominal date and the observed date. If you are planning around business closures, the observed date is the one you want. If you are working out whether a contract deadline lands on a non-working day, check the contract, because it may refer to either.

Why holiday lists disagree

If you have compared two holiday calendars and found they do not match, there are four reasons and none of them is that somebody was careless.

Public, bank and regional holidays are three different things

The three words get used interchangeably and they do not mean the same thing. A public holiday is a day recognised by law across a jurisdiction, on which most non-essential business closes. A bank holiday is a British term with a specific origin: days on which banks were closed and business could not be transacted. In everyday UK usage it now means the same as a public holiday, but the legal basis is separate. A regional holiday applies to part of a country only, and can be a full public holiday where it applies and nothing at all a hundred miles away.

The practical question is usually not "is this a holiday" but "is the office I need to reach open". That is why the tables carry the observed date rather than only the nominal one.

Holidays that move every year

Some dates are fixed and some are calculated, and the calculated ones are where errors creep in. Every date in this table is computed rather than stored.

One more category no calendar can predict: announced holidays, declared at short notice for elections, national mourning, royal events or sporting occasions. A list that never changes between refreshes is a list that is missing them. The one-off British bank holidays for the 2022 state funeral and the 2023 coronation are in our data because they happened; the next one will not be until it is announced.

Markets, banks and the post do not keep the same list

The New York Stock Exchange keeps 10 days in 2026, and the difference from the federal list is not a rounding error. It stays open on Columbus Day and Veterans Day, when federal offices, banks and the postal service close. It closes on Good Friday, which is not a federal holiday at all.

Frequently asked questions