North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany public holidays 2028

2028 at a glance

• New Year's Day falls on Saturday 1 January and is not moved, because Germany has no statutory substitute days.
• All 2028 dates are provisional – calculated from the rule, because official dates are published only through 2027.
• In 2028, public holidays fall on 10 weekdays in North Rhine-Westphalia, three more than in 2027.

Germany has no statutory substitute days: a public holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday is not moved to a weekday, so the following Monday stays a working day in these counts. Each German state sets its own public holidays on top of the nine that apply everywhere.

Public holidays in 2028

11 dates are counted as non-working in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2028; 10 of them fall on a weekday.

• provisional calculated from the rule

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 21 working days in January, 1 holiday
• Feb 21 working days in February
• Mar 23 working days in March
• Apr 18 working days in April, 2 holidays
• May 21 working days in May, 2 holidays
• Jun 20 working days in June, 2 holidays
• Jul 21 working days in July
• Aug 23 working days in August
• Sep 21 working days in September
• Oct 21 working days in October, 1 holiday
• Nov 21 working days in November, 1 holiday
• Dec 19 working days in December, 2 holidays

Compare with the rest of Germany

Long weekends in 2028

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

• 4 days Friday 14 April 2028 to Monday 17 April 2028
• 3 days Saturday 29 April 2028 to Monday 1 May 2028
• 3 days Saturday 3 June 2028 to Monday 5 June 2028
• 4 days Saturday 23 December 2028 to Tuesday 26 December 2028
• 3 days Saturday 30 December 2028 to Monday 1 January 2029

Best days to take leave in 2028

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 North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany's most populous state, and its holiday list reflects a mixed Catholic and Protestant history. Its law on Sundays and public holidays gives eleven days: the nine found everywhere in Germany, plus Corpus Christi, which falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, and All Saints' Day on 1 November. Both extra days are statewide, with no municipal conditions, so the rule applies equally in Cologne, Münster and the largely Protestant parts of Westphalia.

What the state does not have matters just as much. Reformation Day on 31 October is not a holiday, so a Düsseldorf worker has no day off on the day that colleagues in Lower Saxony, to the north-east, now do. Epiphany on 6 January is also absent, which separates North Rhine-Westphalia from Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The Assumption on 15 August is not a state holiday either, although Saarland keeps it.

Among its southern neighbours the state sits in the middle. Rhineland-Palatinate has exactly the same list. Hesse has Corpus Christi but not All Saints' Day. Lower Saxony has Reformation Day but neither Catholic day. For a company with offices in several of these states, the practical effect is that the total of paid days off differs by one or two a year even though most of the calendar is common.

In 2027 the movable days are 26 March for Good Friday, 29 March for Easter Monday, 6 May for Ascension Day, 17 May for Whit Monday and 27 May for Corpus Christi. All Saints' Day falls on a Monday that year, which makes a three-day weekend without any extra leave.

German law does not move a holiday that lands on a Saturday or Sunday. All Saints' Day on a Sunday in 2026 is simply lost, with no compensation, and the following Monday stays a working day in the counts on this site.

Carnival needs a note. Rose Monday, the Monday before Ash Wednesday, is not a public holiday, yet in Cologne, Düsseldorf and many other Rhineland towns employers, schools and public offices close for it by custom or agreement. Because it is not in the state law, this site does not count it. Neither are local fair days or Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, which are working days in law. Employees whose contract or collective agreement grants any of these should adjust the figures accordingly.

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://recht.nrw.de/lrgv/gesetz/01012000-bekanntmachung-der-neufassung-des-gesetzes-ueber-die-sonn-und-feiertage/
• https://www.landesrecht.rlp.de/bsrp/document/jlr-NNLRP00006125
• https://www.rv.hessenrecht.hessen.de/bshe/document/jlr-NNLHE000051B5NN00000000002
• https://www.mi.niedersachsen.de/startseite/themen/allgemeine_angelegenheiten_des_inneren/feiertagsrecht/feiertagsgesetz-61491.html

How the counts are made