Bern, Switzerland public holidays 2026

2026 at a glance

• National Day falls on Saturday 1 August and is not moved; Saint Stephen's Day falls on Saturday 26 December and is not moved, because Switzerland has no statutory substitute days.
• In 2026, public holidays fall on 7 weekdays in Bern, two fewer than in 2025.

Switzerland has no statutory substitute days: a public holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday is not moved to a weekday. Only 1 August is a federal holiday; each canton's law makes some other days equal to a Sunday, and these counts include exactly those. Further cantonal rest days, days kept only in some areas and days that many employers give off by custom are listed but not counted.

Public holidays in 2026

9 dates are counted as non-working in Bern in 2026; 7 of them fall on a weekday.

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 22 working days in March
• Apr 20 working days in April, 2 holidays
• May 19 working days in May, 2 holidays
• Jun 22 working days in June
• Jul 23 working days in July
• Aug 21 working days in August, 1 holiday
• Sep 22 working days in September
• Oct 22 working days in October
• Nov 21 working days in November
• Dec 22 working days in December, 2 holidays

Compare with the rest of Switzerland

Long weekends in 2026

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

• 4 days Thursday 1 January 2026 to Sunday 4 January 2026
• 4 days Friday 3 April 2026 to Monday 6 April 2026
• 3 days Saturday 23 May 2026 to Monday 25 May 2026
• 3 days Friday 25 December 2026 to Sunday 27 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 Bern

Bern is one of the few cantons whose holiday rules are set out in a short, readable statute: the Act on Rest on Public Holidays of 1 December 1996 (BSG 555.1). Article 2 divides the public holidays into three groups. Sundays come first. Next are the high festivals, which are Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, Whitsun, the Federal Day of Thanksgiving, Repentance and Prayer, and Christmas. The third group is the other public holidays: New Year's Day, 2 January, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the national holiday on 1 August and 26 December.

The distinction between the groups matters for what is allowed, not for the count. On high festivals the act additionally bans sporting events, large non-religious gatherings, fairs and gambling, and the municipalities cannot grant exceptions. On the other holidays a municipality can allow noisy activity case by case. Field, forest and garden work is permitted on Easter Monday, Whit Monday, 2 January, 1 August and 26 December as long as they do not fall on a Sunday.

For the working calendar, all the weekday dates above are treated alike. This page counts nine of them in a year: New Year's Day, 2 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, 1 August, Christmas Day and St Stephen's Day. In 2026, with 1 August and 26 December on Saturdays, that leaves 254 working days from Monday to Friday; in 2027 the figure is 256. No other date is listed beside them as a day named but not equated with a Sunday.

Two features mark Bern out. First, the list applies to the whole canton: unlike Aargau or Fribourg, Bern does not create separate lists by district or by the religious majority of a commune. Second, it keeps 2 January and 26 December in every municipality; neither Basel canton recognises 2 January. Labour Day on 1 May is not a statutory holiday in the act.

Enforcement is local. The act leaves the municipalities to apply it and gives supervision to the cantonal police and military directorate. The canton does not shift a holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday to another day. Half days and municipal festivals are not counted.

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://www.lexfind.ch/tolv/111424/de
• https://www.seco.admin.ch/dam/de/sd-web/x5LtHPJdNis5/Anhang-Feiertage-Schweiz-Auszug-ArG-ArGV1-5-SECO-SB-2024-DE.pdf

How the counts are made