Iceland

Iceland - sixteen public holidays, no substitute days, and a midwinter festival that is not one of them

Iceland has sixteen public holidays under the Holidays Act, with no substitute weekday when one falls on a weekend. Þorrablót and Konudagur are the famous winter pair - and neither is a day off.

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Friday, October 23, 2026

No federal or major public holiday observed today in this country.

Iceland

Iceland observes sixteen public holidays under the Holidays Act, and none of them moves to a weekday when it lands on a weekend. The surprise is what is missing: the two winter festivals that most outsiders associate with Icelandic Christmas - Þorrablót and Konudagur - are working days.

The public holidays

  • New Year's Day - 1 January (flag day)
  • Maundy Thursday
  • Good Friday (flag day)
  • Easter Sunday
  • Easter Monday
  • First Day of Summer - the Thursday after 18 April
  • Workers' Day - 1 May (flag day)
  • Ascension Day
  • Whit Sunday
  • Whit Monday
  • Independence Day - 17 June
  • Commerce Day - the first Monday in August
  • Christmas Eve - 24 December (afternoon only)
  • Christmas Day - 25 December (flag day)
  • St Stephen's Day - 26 December
  • New Year's Eve - 31 December

No substitute days

Iceland has no general handover mechanism. Public holidays are observed on the calendar date and weekend holidays are not moved. A holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday simply falls on the weekend, with no extra day in lieu. That means the nominal count of sixteen does not translate neatly into sixteen days off - roughly a quarter of them will always land at a weekend - but it also means there is never an unexpected midweek day in a week where nothing else was planned.

The midwinter festivals that are not days off

This is where an Icelandic calendar parts company with an outsider's expectation of it. The two midwinter observances that structure the Icelandic winter are neither of them statutory.

Þorrablót - Bóndadagur - opens the old Icelandic month of Þorri, a named month of the old Norse-Icelandic calendar that ran from mid-January to mid-February. It is celebrated with a feast, speeches and poetry, and in Reykjavík with a torchlit procession, and it is the closest thing Iceland has to a Burns Night. It is a working day. Konudagur - Women's Day - closes Þorri about four weeks later and is also a working day, and is likewise absent from the Holidays Act.

The contrast with Christmas is instructive. Christmas Eve is a public holiday, and the Christmas period from the 24th to the 26th is well covered by statute. Þorrablót, which for Iceland is a festival of comparable emotional weight, is not. The distinction is that the Christmas holidays are rooted in the Christian calendar and therefore legislated, while Þorrablót is a pre-Christian seasonal observance that has been continuously celebrated without ever having been made law.

Mother's Day and Father's Day

Both are celebrated and neither is a public holiday. Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday in May and Father's Day on the second Sunday in November, and both are ordinary Sundays. They are not in the Holidays Act, they are not days off, and an analysis that lists them among Iceland's statutory holidays - as several general-purpose calendars do - is wrong. Reading them as statutory is a common carry-over from other Nordic arrangements.

Republic Day, 17 June

The single most important day in the Icelandic calendar is the Icelandic National Day on 17 June, and it is a full public holiday - not a commemorative day off but one of the sixteen. It marks the founding of the republic in 1944, declared at Þingvellir, the site of the Althing that Iceland's parliament traces back to 930. The date was chosen deliberately to fall after the end of the Second World War in Europe and after Iceland had taken full control of its own affairs, and it is publicly marked with parades, brass bands and speeches in every town and village.

Major holiday briefs on this page

2026 public holidays (live)

Year calendar pulled live from national gazettes. Refreshes hourly. Editorial notes and contested holidays are above.

We do not yet have a live calendar for this country. See the editorial summary below for the customary holidays.

Frequently asked questions

How many public holidays does Iceland have?

Sixteen under the Holidays Act, covering New Year, the Easter sequence, May Day, Ascension, Pentecost, Independence Day, Commerce Day, Christmas and New Year's Eve. Flag days are designated separately on four of those dates. The count is statutory rather than conventional: the Holidays Act also fixes which of them are working days, which is why some famous Icelandic observances are absent from it.

Is Þorrablót (Bóndadagur) a public holiday in Iceland?

No. This is the detail most calendars get wrong. Þorrablót, the midwinter festival that opens the old Icelandic month of Þorri, is a working day in Iceland. It is not in the Holidays Act and employers are not required to close. Konudagur, the Women's Day that closes Þorri four weeks later, is likewise not statutory. Both are culturally important and widely celebrated, and both are why Iceland's midwinter has a distinct character that its public-holiday count does not capture.

Does Iceland give a substitute day off for a weekend holiday?

No. Iceland observes public holidays on the calendar date, and weekend holidays are generally not moved to a weekday. There is no general handover or substitute mechanism equivalent to the UK bank holiday rules. So a public holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday simply falls on the weekend, with no day in lieu.

Are Mother's Day and Father's Day public holidays in Iceland?

No. Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May, and Father's Day, the second Sunday in November, are celebrated but are explicitly not public holidays. They are not days off and are not in the Holidays Act. Reading them as statutory is a common error carried over from other Nordic calendars, where the arrangements differ.

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