Public holidays in Guernsey

Nine on the States of Guernsey list, and nine again in 2027. Liberation Day on 9 May is a Saturday in 2026 and no weekday was named in its place, so it adds no day off to a Monday to Friday week unless an employer grants one. Good Friday and Christmas Day count among the nine, though neither appears in the Public Holidays Ordinance.

No. The ordinance names 9 May itself, and the Committee for Economic Development left the holiday on Saturday 9 May 2026, as in earlier years, without a substitute. In 2027 the date is a Sunday. Employers decide whether to give staff a day off in lieu. Jersey handles a Saturday differently: its 2010 Act made Liberation Day a public holiday on that day too.

The end of the German occupation, which began on 30 June 1940. At dawn on 9 May 1945 the German forces surrendered unconditionally aboard HMS Bulldog, which had arrived at St Peter Port, and British forces landed shortly afterwards to crowds singing "Sarnia Chérie" among other songs. The Liberation Monument in St Peter Port, a needle whose shadow falls on a bench describing the liberation, was unveiled on 9 May 1995.

Not entirely. Neither island keeps 9 May. Sark was liberated on 10 May 1945, a day after Guernsey, and marks 10 May as its own Liberation Day. On Alderney the German troops surrendered on 16 May 1945. Almost the whole island had been evacuated in June 1940, and 15 December is kept there as Homecoming Day, for the day in 1945 when the evacuated residents came back. Alderney's Summer Bank Holiday is the first Monday in August.

The States of Guernsey class them apart. The Public Holidays Ordinance, 2009 lists New Year's Day, Easter Monday, the three bank holidays, Liberation Day and Boxing Day, with rules for moving some of them off a weekend. Christmas Day and Good Friday, like every Sunday, are customary law holidays: on the official list, with no ordinance behind them.

Guernsey employment law gives no statutory entitlement to public holidays, which sets it apart from Jersey. The States publish the dates each year, and in a year like 2026, when Liberation Day falls on a Saturday, the published list says plainly that a day off in lieu is for each employer to decide.

Good Friday falls on 26 March 2027 and Easter Monday on 29 March, so Easter makes four days in a row, Friday to Monday. In 2026 the same four days ran from 3 to 6 April. Only Easter Monday is set by the ordinance; Good Friday is a customary holiday.