Public holidays in Switzerland

It depends on the canton. Federal law sets one, 1 August, and allows each canton to treat up to eight further days as Sundays, which puts the ceiling at nine protected days a year. New Year's Day, Ascension and Christmas Day are the only ones every canton has chosen. Beyond them the cantonal lists range widely: Ticino names 14 legal holidays in the federal list, Zurich and Basel-Stadt far fewer, and several cantons also treat further days as holidays without naming them in law.

Yes, everywhere, and it is the only holiday Swiss federal law sets. The Labour Act treats it as a Sunday, and unlike any cantonal day it has to be paid even to workers on an hourly wage. In 2026 it falls on a Saturday and in 2027 on a Sunday, and in neither case does a weekday replace it.

Usually nothing. Swiss labour law gives no right to take a holiday later when it lands on a day that was already free, and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs says so in as many words. Neuchâtel is the exception, turning 2 January and 26 December into days off only in the years when New Year's Day or Christmas Day falls on a Sunday. Uri and the two Appenzells go the other way and drop St Stephen's Day when Christmas is on a Monday or a Friday, as it is on Friday 25 December 2026.

In 24 of the 26 cantons. Ticino and Valais have no day off for it; Ticino keeps Easter Monday instead. In Graubünden Good Friday is not a legal holiday but is treated as one. In 2026 it fell on 3 April and in 2027 it falls on 26 March.

Two. The Jeûne genevois, the Genevan fast, falls on the Thursday after the first Sunday in September: Thursday 10 September 2026 and Thursday 9 September 2027. Restoration of the Republic closes the year on 31 December. Geneva gives no day off on 26 December, unlike most German-speaking cantons, so its Christmas holiday is a single day.

A federal day of prayer on the third Sunday in September: 20 September 2026 and 19 September 2027. As a Sunday it adds no day off, except in Vaud, where the Monday after is a legal holiday, Monday 21 September in 2026. Geneva keeps its own fast earlier in the month instead.

Thursday 6 May 2027. In 2026 it fell on Thursday 14 May. Ascension comes 39 days after Easter Sunday, so it is always a Thursday, and it is one of the three days kept in every canton. Whit Monday follows eleven days later, on 17 May 2027, but that is a cantonal day rather than a national one.

A band of cantons from central Switzerland to Ticino and Valais, with Fribourg, Solothurn, Aargau and Jura among them. Corpus Christi, the Assumption on 15 August, All Saints' Day and the Immaculate Conception on 8 December are days off in cantons such as Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Zug, Valais and Ticino. Zurich, Basel-Stadt, Bern and Vaud keep none of the four. Even inside a canton the line can run through villages: in Fribourg a group of communes around Murten works on the Catholic feasts.