Planning a trip, a delivery, a wedding or just a long weekend? You need to know which days a country actually shuts down. This public holidays checker pulls the official holiday calendar for more than 100 countries: pick a country, pick a year, and you get every public holiday with its date, the weekday it falls on, whether it applies nationwide or only in some regions, and a live pointer to the next holiday coming up — with the number of days left to wait for it.
How to use the holidays checker
Choose a country from the list and a year between last year and five years ahead, then press the button. The data comes from the Nager.Date public-holidays API, which compiles official government calendars. For the current year, the next upcoming holiday is highlighted and counted down at the top. Holidays that apply only in part of a country — a US state holiday, a German Land holiday, an Australian state day — show how many regions observe them instead of saying “nationwide”.
Why holiday calendars differ so much
Some holidays are fixed by date: New Year’s Day is 1 January everywhere it is observed. Others float: Easter Monday moves with the lunar calendar, Thanksgiving in the United States is the fourth Thursday of November, and Islamic holidays such as Eid al-Fitr shift about eleven days earlier each year because the Islamic calendar is purely lunar. Many countries also add one-off days — a royal celebration, a national mourning day, an election day — which is why a checker fed by official sources beats a printed calendar from two years ago.
Three things people use this tool for
Long weekends. Scan the list for holidays landing on a Friday or Monday, or sitting one day away from a weekend — a Tuesday holiday plus one booked day off is a four-day break. The weekday column makes these jump out.
Business timing. Sending a contract, a shipment or a support request into a country on its national day means silence. A thirty-second check before scheduling saves the awkward follow-up.
School and family planning. Holiday dates drive flight and hotel prices. Knowing another country’s school-break anchors — and your own — helps you travel in the cheap weeks either side of them.
Common questions
Are these holidays official? Yes — the underlying API tracks government-published calendars for 100+ countries and updates them as governments announce changes.
Why does a holiday show region counts? Because not every public holiday is national. In federal countries especially, states and provinces keep their own days; the checker shows the count so you can tell at a glance.
Do businesses have to close? Rules differ by country and sector: retail, hospitality and transport often keep running with premium pay, while offices, schools and banks close. The calendar tells you the day exists; local labour law tells you who stops.
Can I check future years? Yes, up to five years ahead — useful for weddings and reunions, remembering that governments occasionally add or move days, so re-check closer to the date.
Observed days and substitute days
One wrinkle the table cannot fully show: what happens when a holiday lands on a weekend. The United States observes many federal holidays on the nearest Friday or Monday for government workers; the United Kingdom grants a substitute weekday; Spain sometimes bridges a Thursday holiday into a long weekend informally, while other countries let the day simply vanish into the weekend. Private employers vary again. Treat this checker as the official calendar of record, then confirm the observed day with the employer, school or office you are actually dealing with — especially for banks and government services, where the observed day is the one that closes the doors.
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