HolidayTally

Europe

Switzerland: public holidays by canton

26 cantons. Pick one for its public holidays, working days and long weekends in 2026.

Choose a canton

Working days by canton

Working days in each year of the window, and the public holidays that fall on a weekday in 2026. Each year links to that year's page.

Canton202620272028Weekday holidays 2026
Aargau 257258256 4
Appenzell Ausserrhoden 255256254 6
Appenzell Innerrhoden 254255253 7
Basel-Landschaft 254256252 7
Basel-Stadt 254256252 7
Bern 254256253 7
Fribourg 257258256 4
Geneva 253254253 8
Glarus 254254251 7
Grisons 255256253 6
Jura 253255252 8
Lucerne 256256252 5
Neuchâtel 256257254 5
Nidwalden 255255252 6
Obwalden 255255252 6
Schaffhausen 254256252 7
Schwyz 255255253 6
Solothurn 257258256 4
St. Gallen 255255252 6
Thurgau 254256253 7
Ticino 256256252 5
Uri 255255252 6
Valais 255255253 6
Vaud 253255253 8
Zug 255255252 6
Zurich 254256252 7

Holidays in every canton

Tools for Switzerland

About public holidays in Switzerland

Switzerland has no national list of public holidays. The only holiday set by federal law is 1 August, the Swiss National Day, which SECO describes as a paid holiday equal to a Sunday throughout the country, and the canton of Fribourg notes that it applies in much the same way in every canton. Everything else is decided by the 26 cantons, which is why HolidayTally publishes a page for each canton and none for Switzerland as a whole.

The Federal Labour Act (Article 20a) lets each canton give up to eight further days the legal status of a Sunday, although a cantonal law can go further: the Glarus rest-day law equates nine. SECO, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, points out that the Confederation has no constitutional power to legislate on general public holidays, so the list is purely cantonal. A canton may also vary its list inside its own territory, and several do: Aargau fixes its days district by district, and Fribourg keeps one list for communes with a Catholic majority and another for communes with a Reformed majority. A canton page therefore separates days kept everywhere in the canton from days kept only in some places.

Only four days are counted in every canton: New Year's Day, Ascension Day, 1 August and Christmas Day. The remaining days are a patchwork of church feasts, civic anniversaries and customs. A canton page counts 1 August and the days that cantonal law equates with a Sunday across the whole canton, taken from the SECO table and checked against the cantonal law where it could be read. Three other kinds of day appear in a separate list and are not counted. Some cantonal laws name more rest days than they equate with a Sunday: Ticino designates fifteen official holidays, Jura adds 23 June and Obwalden the feast of Brother Klaus, and these are marked as cantonal holidays not equal to a Sunday. Days kept only in some districts or communes are marked as such. Days such as 2 January or Easter Monday, which many employers give off where the law is silent, are marked as commonly a day off. Half days, such as the afternoon of 1 May in Solothurn, are shown as shorter working days.

Switzerland has no substitute days: a holiday on a Saturday or a Sunday stays where it is and no weekday is given in exchange. Whether an employee is paid for a holiday that lands on a working day is a question of civil law and of the employment contract, and SECO states that federal law imposes no general duty to pay for it.

Sources