Latvia public holidays 2026

2026 at a glance

• Second Day of Christmas falls on Saturday 26 December and no substitute weekday is counted.
• In 2026, public holidays fall on 11 weekdays in Latvia, one fewer than in 2025.

When Restoration of Independence Day (4 May) or Proclamation Day (18 November) falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the following Monday is a holiday by law, and these counts include it; other holidays are not moved. The Cabinet also moves some working days to Saturdays to make bridge days; that order binds state institutions only, so the bridge days are listed but not counted.

Public holidays in 2026

15 dates are counted as non-working in Latvia in 2026 (16 holidays, because 1 falls on the same day as another); 11 of them fall on a weekday.

• not counted some employers only

Also observed by some

2 more days are holidays only for some employers, sectors or areas in 2026. They are not counted as non-working days here.

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, 3 holidays
• May 19 working days in May, 4 holidays
• Jun 20 working days in June, 2 holidays
• Jul 23 working days in July
• Aug 21 working days in August
• Sep 22 working days in September
• Oct 22 working days in October
• Nov 20 working days in November, 1 holiday
• Dec 20 working days in December, 4 holidays

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
• 4 days Friday 1 May 2026 to Monday 4 May 2026
• 4 days Thursday 24 December 2026 to Sunday 27 December 2026
• 4 days Thursday 31 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027

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 Latvia

Latvia's public holidays are fixed by a short law from 1990, On Public Holidays, Commemorative Days and Celebration Days (Par svētku, atceres un atzīmējamām dienām), which the HolidayTally tables follow. It names fifteen days in an ordinary year: New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, 1 May, 4 May (Restoration of Independence Day), Mothers' Day on the second Sunday of May, Whit Sunday, 23 June (Līgo), 24 June (Jāņi), 18 November (Proclamation Day), 24, 25 and 26 December, and 31 December. The closing day of the Latvian Song and Dance Festival is added in the years when the festival is held; the law names it without a calendar date, and no festival falls in 2026 or 2027.

Latvia is unusual in having a weekend rule for only some holidays. The law says that when 4 May, the festival closing day or 18 November falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the next working day is a day off. Every other holiday stays where it is. In 2026 neither case arises, since 4 May is a Monday and 18 November a Wednesday; in 2027 they are Tuesday and Thursday. By contrast, 1 May is a Saturday in 2027 and Christmas Day is a Saturday with Boxing Day on the Sunday, so those cost no weekday. The tables therefore show eleven weekday holidays in 2026 and nine in 2027.

The other feature to know is the transferred working day. Section 133 of the Labour Law lets an employer designate a working day that lies between a public holiday and the weekly rest as a holiday, and move it to a Saturday of the same week or of another week in the same month. For institutions financed from the State budget, the Cabinet issues an order by 1 July for the following year. For 2026 the order turns Friday 2 January into a day off, worked on Saturday 17 January, and Monday 22 June into a day off, worked on Saturday 27 June.

Those orders bind State institutions. Private employers may follow them, but they are not required to do so. HolidayTally therefore lists the two bridge days among the days observed by some, and leaves them out of the count; the working Saturdays remain days of rest. If your employer follows the Cabinet order, the Saturday counts as a working day and the Friday or Monday as a holiday, which leaves the number of working days in those months unchanged.

The working day before a public holiday is shortened by one hour under section 135, unless a collective agreement or contract sets a shorter day. An employee who works on a public holiday receives a supplement of at least 100 per cent under section 68.

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://likumi.lv/ta/id/72608-par-svetku-atceres-un-atzimejamam-dienam
• https://likumi.lv/ta/en/en/id/26019-labour-law

How the counts are made