Netherlands public holidays 2026

2026 at a glance

• Second Day of Christmas falls on Saturday 26 December and is not moved, because Netherlands has no statutory substitute days.
• In 2026, public holidays fall on 6 weekdays in Netherlands, one fewer than in 2025.

No Dutch law gives employees a day off on public holidays: collective agreements (cao) and contracts do. These counts follow the usual practice: Good Friday is listed but not counted, Liberation Day (5 May) is counted only in lustrum years such as 2030, when most agreements give the day off, and a holiday on a weekend is not moved.

Public holidays in 2026

9 dates are counted as non-working in Netherlands in 2026; 6 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, 3 holidays
• Jun 22 working days in June
• 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 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.

• 3 days Saturday 4 April 2026 to Monday 6 April 2026
• 3 days Saturday 25 April 2026 to Monday 27 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 Netherlands

The Netherlands has no law that gives an employee a day off on a public holiday. The days are recognised by the General Time Limits Act, which treats them as non-days when a legal deadline would fall on one, but whether you actually stay at home is set by your collective agreement (cao), your contract or your employer's rules. This page counts the days that nearly all agreements treat as holidays.

Those are New Year's Day, Easter Monday, King's Day (27 April), Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the Second Day of Christmas on 26 December. Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday are also holidays by tradition, but they fall on Sundays and so never change a working-day count. That makes seven weekday holidays in a typical year. If King's Day falls on a Sunday it is moved to the Saturday before, which is a rest day for most employees, so the count is unaffected.

Liberation Day on 5 May is a national day of remembrance and celebration, yet only a day off in lustrum years, every fifth year, such as 2025 and 2030. Many agreements give the day off then, and civil servants often receive it every year. This site counts it as a holiday in lustrum years and lists it as an extra in other years.

Good Friday is a recognised holiday in name, but it is not counted here. By default it is a normal working day, and only some collective agreements make it a day off. The same goes for Carnival in the south, which is regional custom and not a holiday.

Dutch public holidays are never moved to another weekday. A holiday on a Saturday or Sunday is simply lost, because no statute gives a substitute. The working-day counts on this page follow that practice, so Boxing Day on a Saturday or Sunday takes nothing away from the following week. If you do not have the day off under your agreement, the dates still give an accurate picture of the national calendar.

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://ondernemersplein.overheid.nl/personeel/arbeidsvoorwaarden/officiele-feestdagen/

How the counts are made