How are Easter-based holidays calculated?

Good Friday and Easter Monday are derived from Easter Sunday, which this tool computes with the anonymous Gregorian (Meeus/Jones/Butcher) algorithm. Good Friday is two days before and Easter Monday one day after.

Why are some holidays marked variable?

Variable means the date moves each year because it is tied to Easter rather than a fixed calendar date. Fixed holidays like Christmas always fall on the same day-month.

Are religious lunar holidays included?

No. Holidays based on the Islamic, Hindu, or other lunar calendars shift relative to the Gregorian calendar and are not computed here. The tool covers fixed-date and Easter-linked national holidays.

What about substitute or in-lieu days?

Many countries grant a substitute day off when a holiday falls on a weekend. This reference shows the official holiday date itself, not the moved observance, so always check local rules for the working day.

Is this list exhaustive for each country?

No. It covers the principal national public holidays. Regional, state, and provincial holidays vary widely and are not included, so treat this as a quick reference rather than a payroll source of truth.

What is the Public Holidays by Country Reference?

Look up major national public holidays by country and year. Fixed-date holidays are listed directly and Easter-linked dates such as Good Friday and Easter Monday are computed for any year you choose. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Public Holidays by Country Reference

Name: Public Holidays by Country Reference
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Public holidays by country

National public holidays come in two flavours: fixed-date holidays that always fall on the same calendar day (Christmas on 25 December) and movable holidays tied to Easter, which shifts every year. This reference lists the major national holidays for a selection of countries and computes the Easter-linked dates for whatever year you enter.

How it works

Fixed holidays are stored as a month and day and simply attached to the year you choose. Easter-linked holidays are calculated from Easter Sunday, which this tool derives using the anonymous Gregorian algorithm (also called the Meeus/Jones/Butcher method). That algorithm takes the year and, through a series of modular-arithmetic steps based on the 19-year Metonic lunar cycle and the Gregorian leap-year corrections, returns the exact Sunday of Easter.

From Easter Sunday the tool offsets by a fixed number of days: Good Friday is two days earlier, Easter Monday one day later. Because Easter can fall anywhere from 22 March to 25 April, these holidays move several weeks year to year.

Why holiday lookups matter in practice

Payroll and leave management — knowing which dates are statutory holidays is essential for calculating overtime pay, leave entitlements, and shift scheduling across teams that span more than one country. A developer running payroll for UK and German employees faces different bank holiday calendars and different in-lieu rules when a holiday lands on a weekend.

Project planning — sprint planning and deadline setting across international teams needs accurate non-working day counts. A two-week sprint in late March can lose two working days to Good Friday and Easter Monday in many countries — but those dates move each year, so checking is necessary.

Contract and legal dates — many agreements count business days, and a missed public holiday can shift a delivery date or trigger a late-payment clause. Knowing exactly which Mondays are bank holidays in a given country is often the first step in legal date arithmetic.

Fixed versus movable holidays

Type	Behaviour	Example
Fixed	Same date every year	Christmas (25 Dec), New Year (1 Jan)
Easter-linked	Shifts up to 5 weeks	Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday
Observation rule	Weekend → weekday	US Independence Day when 4 Jul falls on Sunday

This tool computes Easter-linked dates precisely for any year but shows the official holiday date, not the in-lieu observance. Always verify local in-lieu rules before using dates in payroll calculations.

What is not included

Lunar-calendar holidays (Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Diwali, Lunar New Year) are not listed because they require religious-authority or astronomical data that cannot be derived from a fixed formula. Regional and provincial holidays — a US state holiday, a German Bundesland Feiertag, a Canadian provincial statutory day — also vary too widely to cover here. Treat this reference as a national-level starting point and supplement it with authoritative local sources for payroll or legal purposes.