Switzerland public holidays
Swiss public holidays for calendar year 2026. Only 1 August (Bundesfeiertag / National Day) is a TRUE federal public holiday, equated to a Sunday nationwide under Art. 110 para. 3 of the Federal Constitution. All other holidays are set by the CANTONS (each may designate up to eight days per year as equated to Sundays under Art. 20a of the Federal Labour Act, ArG). The list below is the commonly-observed nationwide set with that caveat.
| Current value | 20 days held |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| In force until | 2026-12-31 |
| Official source | Federal Constitution Art. 110 Abs. 3 (1 August equated to a Sunday, i.e. the sole federal public holiday) and Federal Labour Act (ArG, SR 822.11) Art. 20a (cantons may designate up to eight further holidays as equal to Sundays); 2026 calendar dates computed from these rules |
| Last verified | 2026-07-30 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
KEY STRUCTURAL POINT: 1 AUGUST is the ONLY genuine federal public holiday — since a 1993 popular vote it has been a paid non-working day equated to a Sunday throughout Switzerland (Art. 110 Abs. 3 BV). EVERY OTHER day above is a CANTONAL holiday whose observance differs by canton (and sometimes by commune); a business in one canton may work a day that is a holiday in the next. The days observed in ALL 26 cantons are effectively only four: New Year's Day, Ascension, Christmas and 1 August. Widely-but-not-universally observed: Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday and St Stephen's Day (26 Dec). Labour Day (1 May) is a public holiday in only a subset of cantons. Cantons with a Catholic tradition additionally observe Epiphany (6 Jan), St Joseph's (19 Mar), Corpus Christi, Assumption (15 Aug), All Saints (1 Nov) and Immaculate Conception (8 Dec) — not listed above because they are regional. 2026 movable-feast dates are anchored to Easter Sunday 5 Apr 2026 (Good Friday 3 Apr, Easter Monday 6 Apr, Ascension 14 May, Whit Monday 25 May). There is no single official federal calendar of all holidays because the competence is cantonal; SECO/cantonal labour offices publish per-canton lists. 2027 EXTENSION (2026-07-30): dates carried forward on the same basis as 2026 — all Swiss holidays are either fixed-date or Western-Easter-relative (Easter Sunday 28 March 2027), none uses an nth-weekday rule, and Swiss law provides NO weekend substitution or transfer. Each entry keeps its cantonal-scope annotation, which is the important caveat here: only 1 August is a federal holiday (Federal Constitution Art. 110(3)); everything else is designated cantonally under ArG Art. 20a(1) (max. 8 further days per canton), and cantonal totals range from about 7 to 15 days. 1 August 2027 falls on a Sunday and is simply absorbed. Verification note: admin.ch, seco.admin.ch and fedlex all refused automated reads on 2026-07-30, so the nationwide-versus-cantonal split rests on the statutory basis plus secondary corroboration rather than a freshly read SECO annex.
Get it programmatically
curl https://euroref.dev/v1/ch/public-holidays
# Free.
# History: curl https://euroref.dev/v1/ch/public-holidays/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/ch/public-holidaysOther Switzerland series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · minimum wage · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates