US Holiday Dates.

US holiday dates for 2026

The United States has 11 federal holidays in 2026. Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26; Christmas falls on Friday, December 25; and Memorial Day is Monday, May 25.

2026 federal holiday dates

HolidayDateDay
New Year's DayJanuary 1, 2026Thursday
Martin Luther King Jr. DayJanuary 19, 2026Monday
Washington's BirthdayFebruary 16, 2026Monday
Memorial DayMay 25, 2026Monday
JuneteenthJune 19, 2026Friday
Independence DayJuly 4, 2026Saturday
Labor DaySeptember 7, 2026Monday
Columbus DayOctober 12, 2026Monday
Veterans DayNovember 11, 2026Wednesday
Thanksgiving DayNovember 26, 2026Thursday
Christmas DayDecember 25, 2026Friday

Popular observances

ObservanceDateDay
Valentine's DayFebruary 14, 2026Saturday
Easter SundayApril 5, 2026Sunday
Arbor Day (national)April 24, 2026Friday
Mother's DayMay 10, 2026Sunday
Father's DayJune 21, 2026Sunday
HalloweenOctober 31, 2026Saturday
Black FridayNovember 27, 2026Friday
Cyber MondayNovember 30, 2026Monday

How US holiday dates are decided

The federal legal public holidays are listed in a single statute, 5 U.S.C. § 6103, and there are eleven of them. Five sit on fixed calendar dates — New Year's Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Veterans Day and Christmas. The other six are defined by weekday instead: Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Washington's Birthday on the third Monday of their month, Memorial Day on the last Monday of May, Labor Day on the first Monday of September, Columbus Day on the second Monday of October, and Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.

When a fixed-date holiday lands on a weekend, federal observance shifts: a holiday falling on Saturday is observed the preceding Friday, and one falling on Sunday is observed the following Monday. That rule is why Christmas 2026 needs no adjustment — December 25 falls on a Friday — while Independence Day 2026 is observed on Friday, July 3, because July 4 lands on a Saturday.

These rules bind federal agencies. Private employers are under no obligation to follow them at all: there is no legal requirement in the United States to provide paid holidays, so whether a given day is a day off depends on your employer's policy.

Why the same holiday falls on a different date each year

Six of the eleven federal holidays are anchored to a weekday rather than a date, so they move within a fixed window. Thanksgiving always lands between November 22 and November 28; Memorial Day between May 25 and May 31; Labor Day between September 1 and September 7. The date is predictable years ahead because the rule never changes — it is simple arithmetic on a calendar, which is why dates through 2035 can be published with confidence.

Observances that follow a lunar calendar work differently. Diwali, for instance, tracks the new moon of the Hindu month of Kartik and has to be checked against a published almanac each year rather than calculated from the Gregorian date.

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