Dates and Days

Federal holidays

Every federal holiday in a year, and the day offices actually close

The eleven holidays in 5 U.S.C. § 6103, computed from the statute rather than copied from a list — so the third Monday in January is worked out for the year you ask about, and a holiday that lands on a weekend shows the day off separately from the date itself.

Holidays this year— Observed on another day— Making a long weekend— Next one— Days away—
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The federal holidays — the date in the statute, and the day offices close
HolidayDateFalls onObserved

Computed from the statute, not stored as a list

Six of the eleven federal holidays have no fixed date. Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November; Memorial Day is the last Monday in May; Labor Day the first Monday in September. Those are rules, and this page applies them to whichever year you ask about rather than looking the answer up. The five that do have fixed dates — New Year's Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Veterans Day and Christmas — still move in the sense that matters, because the day offices close depends on which weekday the date lands on.

The holiday and the day off are two different facts

Two different authorities are at work here, and most calculators run them together. The Saturday rule is in the statute: 5 U.S.C. § 6103(b) substitutes the preceding Friday when a holiday falls on a Saturday. The Sunday-to-Monday rule is not in the statute — it comes from Executive Order 11582 of 1971, which set the observance for employees whose basic workweek does not include Sunday. Both are real; only one is in section 6103. So in 2026 Independence Day is Saturday 4 July, and the federal holiday people actually get is Friday 3 July. Both appear in the table above, in separate columns, because collapsing them into one date is the single most common error in a holiday calculator — and it is the error that matters, since anyone counting working days needs the observed date and anyone writing about the holiday needs the statutory one. It is not a rare case either: across 2000–2029 the two dates diverge 38 times, which is closer to thirteen times a decade than to the once-in-a-while it is usually treated as.

There is a further wrinkle the business-day counter handles and this page does not need to: when the observed date is in a different year from the holiday. New Year's Day 2028 falls on a Saturday, so it is observed on Friday 31 December 2027. A working-day count for December 2027 that only looked at 2027's holidays would miss it.

The list itself changes, and the years matter

Federal holidays are created by statute, so the correct list depends on the year. Juneteenth National Independence Day was added in 2021, which means 2020 had ten and 2021 had eleven. The Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. was signed into law in 1983 but first observed in 1986 — a three-year gap that is easy to get wrong and produces a phantom day off in 1984 and 1985. Each holiday carries its own start year here rather than the whole table sharing one.

The other direction is a refusal. Ask for a year before 1978 and the calculator declines and explains itself, because the modern set is not what the country observed then and a table that looks right while being wrong is worse than no table.

What is not here

Easter is not a federal holiday, and neither is any of the church year that hangs off it — those live on the Easter page, where both the Western and Orthodox reckonings are computed along with Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Ascension and Pentecost. State holidays are not here either: they vary, and several states observe days no federal office recognises. Nor are the occasional executive orders that close offices on a Christmas Eve, because a one-off order for one year is not a rule anything can compute.

Questions

What is the difference between the holiday and the observed date?
The holiday is the date named in the statute; the observed date is the day federal offices actually close. Two different authorities set that: 5 U.S.C. 6103(b) substitutes the preceding Friday when a holiday falls on a Saturday, while the Sunday-to-Monday rule comes from Executive Order 11582 of 1971 rather than from the statute. Independence Day 2026 is the clearest case: 4 July is a Saturday, so the day off is Friday 3 July, and both dates are shown here because they are different facts. Across 2000 to 2029 the two dates diverge 38 times, so this is an ordinary case rather than an edge one.
Why does the number of federal holidays change between years?
Because holidays are enacted, not eternal. Juneteenth National Independence Day was added by Pub. L. 117-17 in 2021, so 2020 has ten federal holidays and 2021 has eleven. The Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. was first observed in 1986, not in 1983 when it was signed. This page applies each holiday's own enactment year rather than showing the modern list for every year, because a working-day count across 19 June 2019 must not skip a day the country worked.
Why will it not show me a year before 1978?
Because the answer would be a fiction. The modern set of federal holidays and the rules for observing them were not in place before then, and printing today's list against an older year would produce a table that looks authoritative and is wrong. Note that 1978 is a floor, not a date on which the list settled: the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. was first observed in 1986 and Juneteenth was added in 2021, and each is applied from its own year. The calculator refuses below the floor and says why, which is the honest form of not knowing.
Are these the days my employer gives off?
Not necessarily. These are the federal holidays, which bind federal offices; private employers may observe more, fewer or different ones, and state holidays vary. Banks are a common source of confusion: Federal Reserve Banks follow this list for Sunday holidays, closing on the Monday, but they do NOT take the Friday before a Saturday holiday, so on 3 July 2026 federal offices are closed and Federal Reserve Banks are open. Read this as the schedule federal offices and courts keep, not as an entitlement and not as a banking calendar.
Where are Easter, Thanksgiving Eve and the other floating dates?
Thanksgiving is here; it is the fourth Thursday in November and is computed rather than looked up. Easter is not a federal holiday, so it lives on its own page along with the movable feasts that are defined as offsets from it. Days like Christmas Eve are not federal holidays even in years when an executive order closes offices, and a one-off order is not a rule this page can compute.