Federal Holidays 2027

Federal law fixes each holiday either to a calendar date, such as July 4, or to a weekday rule, such as the last Monday in May. The weekday-rule holidays always land on a Monday or a Thursday, so the variation from year to year comes from the five date-fixed ones. In 2027, three of those five fall on a weekend, and so does New Year's Day 2028. That produces four moved days off, back-to-back Friday holidays in December and a few closings that differ by institution. The 2027 calendar shows the whole year at once, and the Business Days Calculator counts working days between any two dates.

How the observed-date rule works

Two rules decide the weekday off for the large majority of federal employees, who work Monday through Friday. When a holiday falls on a Saturday, 5 U.S.C. 6103(b) makes the Friday before it the legal holiday for pay and leave. When it falls on a Sunday, section 3(a) of Executive Order 11582 of February 11, 1971 moves it to the Monday after. OPM applies both rules when it publishes each year's schedule.

In 2027 the Saturday rule applies three times and the Sunday rule once. The Saturday rule also reaches across the year boundary: OPM lists Friday, December 31, 2027 as the first holiday of its 2028 schedule, because January 1, 2028 is a Saturday. The holiday itself does not move. July 4 is still Independence Day on its Sunday, and only the paid day off shifts. Employees whose regular days off are not Saturday and Sunday receive an "in lieu of" holiday under separate OPM rules, so a shift worker's day off can differ from the one in the table.

Long weekends in 2027

A Monday or Friday holiday creates a three-day weekend on its own. A Thursday holiday needs one vacation day on the Friday to become a four-day weekend. 2027 has no Tuesday or Wednesday holidays, so no day off is stranded mid-week.

• Fri, Jan 1 to Sun, Jan 3: New Year's Day, 3 days
• Sat, Jan 16 to Mon, Jan 18: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 3 days
• Sat, Feb 13 to Mon, Feb 15: Washington's Birthday (Presidents Day), 3 days
• Sat, May 29 to Mon, May 31: Memorial Day, 3 days
• Fri, Jun 18 to Sun, Jun 20: Juneteenth, 3 days
• Sat, Jul 3 to Mon, Jul 5: Independence Day, 3 days
• Sat, Sep 4 to Mon, Sep 6: Labor Day, 3 days
• Sat, Oct 9 to Mon, Oct 11: Columbus Day, 3 days
• Fri, Dec 24 to Sun, Dec 26: Christmas Day, 3 days
• Fri, Dec 31 to Sun, Jan 2, 2028: New Year's Day 2028, 3 days
• Thu, Nov 11 to Sun, Nov 14: Veterans Day, 4 days if you take Fri, Nov 12 off
• Thu, Nov 25 to Sun, Nov 28: Thanksgiving, 4 days if you take Fri, Nov 26 off

November is the month for stretching. Veterans Day on Thursday, November 11 and Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 25 each turn into four-day weekends with one vacation day. At the end of the year, four vacation days, Monday, December 27 through Thursday, December 30, connect the observed Christmas and New Year's Fridays into ten consecutive days off, from Friday, December 24 to Sunday, January 2, 2028.

What is open and closed on 2027 holidays

Federal offices close on every observed day off. Banks, post offices and the stock market each follow their own calendar, and 2027 is a year in which those calendars disagree more than usual.

* The Postal Service had not published its 2027 holiday schedule as of October 2026. The column follows its 2026 practice and its Employee and Labor Relations Manual.

• Banks. The Federal Reserve closes on the observed day for weekday and Sunday holidays, but for Saturday holidays its Banks stay open on the Friday while the Board of Governors closes. In 2027 that means Federal Reserve Banks operate on June 18, December 24 and December 31 and close on Monday, July 5. Banks set their own hours, and many follow the Fed's calendar.
• Post offices. Post offices close and regular mail delivery stops on federal holidays. For a Saturday holiday in 2026, USPS kept post offices open with normal delivery on Friday, July 3 and closed them on Saturday, July 4; its manual observes a Sunday holiday on the following Monday.
• Stock market. The NYSE closes on ten weekdays in 2027, including Good Friday, March 26, which is not a federal holiday. It trades on Columbus Day and Veterans Day, and because New Year's Day 2028 falls on a Saturday, it observes no holiday for it and opens on December 31. Trading ends at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, November 26.

Why so many holidays fall on Mondays

Five of the 11 holidays are tied to a Monday, and most of that traces to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, signed June 28, 1968 (Public Law 90-363). It moved Washington's Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February, Memorial Day from May 30 to the last Monday in May and Veterans Day from November 11 to the fourth Monday in October, and it created Columbus Day on the second Monday in October. The Monday dates took effect in 1971. Veterans Day did not stay: a 1975 law returned it to November 11 starting in 1978, which is why it can fall midweek and lands on a Thursday in 2027.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day followed the Monday pattern from the start. The law creating it was signed on November 2, 1983, and set the third Monday in January, first observed in 1986. One popular belief is wrong, according to the Congressional Research Service: neither the 1968 act nor any later law renamed Washington's Birthday as Presidents Day. The federal name is still Washington's Birthday, even though many states and businesses use Presidents Day.

State holidays and private employers

Federal holidays legally bind only the federal government and the District of Columbia; each state sets its own list. Most states follow the federal calendar closely, but the differences matter for state offices, courts and schools. Louisiana law lists Mardi Gras, Tuesday, February 9, 2027, and Good Friday, March 26, 2027, among its legal holidays. Massachusetts closes state offices for Patriots' Day on the third Monday in April, April 19, 2027. Some states rename or skip Columbus Day, and several add the day after Thanksgiving. Check your state's official holiday list before relying on a closing.

Private employers are not required to follow any of it. The Department of Labor states that the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require pay for time not worked, including federal holidays, and that holiday benefits are generally a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee. A company may close on all 11 days, on a handful, or on none, and its policy governs.

One more federal holiday exists outside this list: Inauguration Day, January 20 every fourth year, is a holiday only for federal and District of Columbia employees in the Washington area. It does not occur in 2027. The next one, January 20, 2029, falls on a Saturday, and OPM notes that Inauguration Day is not observed on another day, so only employees scheduled to work that Saturday receive the holiday.

Sources

• U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Federal Holidays (2027, 2028 and 2029 schedules, including the Inauguration Day 2029 note).
• U.S. Government Publishing Office: 5 U.S.C. 6103, Holidays (United States Code, 2024 edition).
• National Archives: Executive Order 11582, Observance of holidays by Government agencies.
• Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System: Federal Reserve Holidays.
• New York Stock Exchange: Holidays and Trading Hours.
• U.S. Postal Service: Postal holidays and Employee and Labor Relations Manual, section 518.
• Congressional Research Service: Federal Holidays: Evolution and Current Practices (R41990).
• U.S. Department of Labor: Holidays.
• Louisiana State Legislature: R.S. 1:55, Days of public rest and legal holidays.