Bulgaria public holidays 2026

2026 at a glance

• Day of Slavonic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture falls on Sunday 24 May and is observed on Monday 25 May; Unification Day falls on Sunday 6 September and is observed on Monday 7 September; Second Day of Christmas falls on Saturday 26 December and is observed on Monday 28 December.
• In 2026, public holidays fall on 13 weekdays in Bulgaria, the same as in 2025.

When a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, Bulgarian law makes the first working day after it a day off, except for the Easter holidays; these counts include that day, labelled as observed. The Council of Ministers can also declare a one-off non-attendance day under the Labour Code, as it did for 2 January 2026, and these counts include it.

Public holidays in 2026

18 dates are counted as non-working in Bulgaria in 2026; 13 of them fall on a weekday.

• observed substitute weekday off

Working days and hours by month

Working days are Monday to Friday minus the counted holidays. Hours are shown for a 7.5-hour and an 8-hour working day.

• Jan 20 working days in January, 2 holidays
• Feb 20 working days in February
• Mar 21 working days in March, 1 holiday
• Apr 20 working days in April, 4 holidays
• May 18 working days in May, 4 holidays
• Jun 22 working days in June
• Jul 23 working days in July
• Aug 21 working days in August
• Sep 20 working days in September, 3 holidays
• Oct 22 working days in October
• Nov 21 working days in November
• Dec 20 working days in December, 4 holidays

Long weekends in 2026

Runs of three or more days off in a row without taking leave.

• 4 days Friday 10 April 2026 to Monday 13 April 2026
• 3 days Friday 1 May 2026 to Sunday 3 May 2026
• 3 days Saturday 23 May 2026 to Monday 25 May 2026
• 3 days Saturday 5 September 2026 to Monday 7 September 2026
• 5 days Thursday 24 December 2026 to Monday 28 December 2026

Best days to take leave in 2026

The longest single break for each number of leave days, built around a public holiday.

Leave plans for the whole year

Non-overlapping breaks that give the most days off for a given number of leave days.

Try any budget from 1 to 30 days in the leave planner

Countdown

The days to the next holiday appear here when JavaScript is on.

The working days left this month and this year appear here when JavaScript is on.

Count working days between two dates

Calendar and data downloads

The subscription works in Google Calendar, Outlook and Apple Calendar. The CSV file also lists the days observed by some.

About public holidays in Bulgaria

Bulgaria writes both its holidays and the rule that shifts them into one article of the Labour Code, Article 154. The official holidays are New Year's Day, Liberation Day (3 March), Labour Day (1 May), St George's Day and the Day of the Bulgarian Army (6 May), the Day of Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavonic Literature (24 May), Unification Day (6 September), Independence Day (22 September), Christmas Eve with the two days of Christmas (24 to 26 December), and four Easter days: Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.

The rule for weekends is what sets Bulgaria apart. When an official holiday other than the Easter days lands on a Saturday or Sunday, the first working day after it, or the first two, becomes a non-attendance day, and these tables count it, labelled as observed. In 2026 Monday 25 May replaced 24 May, Monday 7 September replaced 6 September, and Monday 28 December replaced 26 December. In 2027 Christmas Day and the day after it fall on Saturday and Sunday, so Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December are off.

The Easter exception produces an unusual case in 2027. Orthodox Easter Sunday is on 2 May, so 1 May is both Labour Day and Holy Saturday. The exception covers the Easter holidays, not Labour Day, so Labour Day still moves to the first working day after it. Sunday and Monday are Easter, which puts the day off on Tuesday 4 May 2027.

The Code also allows the Council of Ministers to declare one-off non-attendance days. It used that power for the switch to the euro: Decision No 808 of November 2025 made 31 December 2025 and 2 January 2026 days off, with no Saturday to work in exchange, and the Labour Inspectorate explained how work on those days is paid. These counts therefore include Friday 2 January 2026.

1 November, the Day of the People's Awakeners, is a non-attendance day only for schools, colleges and universities, so it is not included. Days of individual professions and towns are left out as well.

Easter follows the Julian reckoning of the Orthodox Church, so Bulgaria has no Ascension Day or Whit Monday holiday. Work on an official holiday is paid at least double, and the counts are the same in every province.

Source and last check

Dates are calculated with the python-holidays library 0.108 and checked against the official sources below. Last checked: 15 November 2026.

Sources

• https://lex.bg/laws/ldoc/1594373121
• https://dv.parliament.bg/DVWeb/showMaterialDV.jsp?idMat=239075
• https://www.gli.government.bg/bg/taxonomy/term/423/node/13797

How the counts are made