Iceland public holidays 2026

2026 at a glance

• Second Day of Christmas falls on Saturday 26 December and is not moved, because Iceland has no statutory substitute days.
• In 2026, public holidays fall on 11 weekdays in Iceland, one fewer than in 2025.

Iceland 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. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are holidays from 1 pm; they count as full working days here.

Public holidays in 2026

14 dates are counted as non-working in Iceland in 2026; 11 of them fall on a weekday.

Shorter working days

2 days are shorter working days in 2026. They count as full working days here.

• Thursday 24 December 2026: Christmas Eve (from 1pm)
• Thursday 31 December 2026: New Year's Eve (from 1pm)

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 18 working days in April, 5 holidays
• May 18 working days in May, 4 holidays
• Jun 21 working days in June, 1 holiday
• Jul 23 working days in July
• Aug 20 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

Long weekends in 2026

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

• 5 days Thursday 2 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 Saturday 1 August 2026 to Monday 3 August 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 Iceland

Iceland has fourteen public holidays a year in the HolidayTally tables. Ten of them come from the church calendar and Easter: New Year's Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday, Whit Monday, Christmas Day and the Second Day of Christmas (26 December). The other four are secular: the First Day of Summer, 1 May, National Day on 17 June, and Commerce Day (Frídagur verslunarmanna) on the first Monday in August.

The legal footing is short. Article 6 of the Act on the 40-hour working week (lög nr. 88/1971) says that the days off are the holy days of the national church, the First Day of Summer, 1 May and 17 June, and adds Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve from 1 pm. An amendment of 1982 made the first Monday in August a paid day off from 1983 onwards. The holy days themselves are listed in article 2 of Act no. 32/1997 on peace for religious observance. The First Day of Summer is the Thursday that falls between 19 and 25 April, so it is 23 April in 2026 and 22 April in 2027. Commerce Day is 3 August in 2026 and 2 August in 2027, which means it is never a weekend day.

Two shorter days sit apart from the list. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are working days in the morning and days off from 1 pm, as the 1971 act puts it; article 7 lets confirmed agreements between the national federations depart from the act, so some workplaces stop earlier. Because they are half days, the site shows them in a separate list of shortened days and counts them as full working days. The church act gives Christmas Eve holy-day status only from 6 pm, which concerns public peace rather than working time.

Iceland has no rule that gives an extra weekday when a holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday: neither act moves a holiday, and this site moves nothing. Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday are always Sundays. In 2027, 1 May and Christmas Day are both Saturdays and the Second Day of Christmas is a Sunday, so only nine of the fourteen holidays land on a weekday that year. In 2026 the figure is eleven, because only 26 December joins the two Sundays on the weekend.

Local festivals and professional days, such as Seamen's Day in June, are not public holidays and are not listed.

Easter-based dates need no annual announcement. In 2026 Maundy Thursday is 2 April, Good Friday 3 April, Easter Monday 6 April, Ascension Day 14 May and Whit Monday 25 May. In 2027 they are 25 March, 26 March, 29 March, 6 May and 17 May.

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.althingi.is/lagas/nuna/1971088.html
• https://www.althingi.is/lagas/nuna/1997032.html

How the counts are made