Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany public holidays 2026

2026 at a glance

• German Unity Day falls on Saturday 3 October and is not moved; All Saints' Day falls on Sunday 1 November and is not moved; Second Day of Christmas falls on Saturday 26 December and is not moved, because Germany has no statutory substitute days.
• In 2026, public holidays fall on 8 weekdays in Rhineland-Palatinate, two fewer than in 2025.

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 2026

11 dates are counted as non-working in Rhineland-Palatinate in 2026; 8 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 21 working days in January, 1 holiday
• Feb 20 working days in February
• Mar 22 working days in March
• Apr 20 working days in April, 2 holidays
• May 18 working days in May, 3 holidays
• Jun 21 working days in June, 1 holiday
• Jul 23 working days in July
• Aug 21 working days in August
• Sep 22 working days in September
• Oct 22 working days in October, 1 holiday
• Nov 21 working days in November, 1 holiday
• Dec 22 working days in December, 2 holidays

Compare with the rest of Germany

Long weekends in 2026

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

• 4 days Friday 3 April 2026 to Monday 6 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 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 Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate observes eleven public holidays under its state law on Sundays and holidays. That is the national core of nine days plus two Catholic feasts that apply throughout the state: Corpus Christi, held on the second Thursday after Whitsun, and All Saints' Day on 1 November. Neither depends on the religious make-up of the municipality, so a town on the Moselle and a mainly Protestant village in the Palatinate have the same days off.

The list matches North Rhine-Westphalia's exactly, which is worth knowing for anyone commuting across the northern border. The southern and western borders differ. Saarland adds the Assumption on 15 August. Baden-Württemberg, to the south-east, adds Epiphany on 6 January. Hesse, to the north-east, keeps Corpus Christi but has no All Saints' Day. Reformation Day on 31 October is not a holiday in Rhineland-Palatinate, unlike in Saxony, Thuringia and the other eastern states.

The dates that move with Easter are Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday and Corpus Christi. In 2027 they are 26 March, 29 March, 6 May, 17 May and 27 May. The fixed days, 1 January, 1 May, 3 October, 1 November, 25 December and 26 December, always keep their calendar date.

Because the state has no rule shifting a weekend holiday, the weekday you lose depends on the calendar. In 2026 All Saints' Day is a Sunday, in 2027 it is a Monday. The state does not give a replacement day when a holiday falls on a weekend, and employers are not obliged to offer one. These counts treat the Monday after a weekend holiday as an ordinary working day.

Several customs resemble holidays but are not covered. Carnival Monday, known locally as Rose Monday, is celebrated in Mainz and many other towns, and numerous firms close for part or all of it; it is not a legal holiday and is not counted. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are working days in law too. Wine-festival days and school holidays are also outside the figures. Collective agreements in some industries give extra paid days, and where yours does, your own total will be higher than the one shown here.

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.landesrecht.rlp.de/bsrp/document/jlr-NNLRP00006125
• https://recht.saarland.de/bssl/document/jlr-NNLSL0000A2D6NN00000000007
• https://recht.nrw.de/lrgv/gesetz/01012000-bekanntmachung-der-neufassung-des-gesetzes-ueber-die-sonn-und-feiertage/
• https://www.rv.hessenrecht.hessen.de/bshe/document/jlr-NNLHE000051B5NN00000000002

How the counts are made