When Is the Holiday? Date Calculator
The date of any holiday in any year, the weekday it falls on, and — for federal holidays — the day it is actually observed when it lands at the weekend.
When Is the Holiday? Date Calculator: with the default inputs, date is Thursday, November 26, 2026.
- Day of the week
- Thursday
- Observed on
- the same day
- Days from today
- 70
- How the date is set
- Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, so its date moves each year.
- Federal holiday?
- Yes — one of the 11 US federal holidays
Assumptions
- Federal observed dates follow 5 U.S.C. § 6103: a Saturday holiday is observed the preceding Friday, a Sunday holiday the following Monday.
- Easter is computed by the Gregorian computus; Orthodox Easter uses the Julian calendar and is not shown.
- Holiday rules are applied to every year in range, including years before a holiday was established — Juneteenth became federal only in 2021.
- Only US holidays are covered, and only the eleven federal ones have a legal observed date.
| Year | Date | Day | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | November 26 | Thursday | same day |
| 2027 | November 25 | Thursday | same day |
| 2028 | November 23 | Thursday | same day |
| 2029 | November 22 | Thursday | same day |
| 2030 | November 28 | Thursday | same day |
| 2031 | November 27 | Thursday | same day |
| 2032 | November 25 | Thursday | same day |
| 2033 | November 24 | Thursday | same day |
| 2034 | November 23 | Thursday | same day |
| 2035 | November 22 | Thursday | same day |
| Holiday | Date | Day | Federal |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | January 1 | Thursday | yes |
| Martin Luther King Jr. Day | January 19 | Monday | yes |
| Valentine's Day | February 14 | Saturday | — |
| Presidents' Day | February 16 | Monday | yes |
| St. Patrick's Day | March 17 | Tuesday | — |
| Easter | April 5 | Sunday | — |
| Mother's Day | May 10 | Sunday | — |
| Memorial Day | May 25 | Monday | yes |
| Juneteenth | June 19 | Friday | yes |
| Father's Day | June 21 | Sunday | — |
How this is worked out
The formula
Fixed-date holidays fall on the same calendar date every year: Christmas on 25 December, Independence Day on 4 July. Floating holidays are defined by a weekday rule: Thanksgiving = 4th Thursday of November Memorial Day = last Monday of May Labor Day = 1st Monday of September MLK Day = 3rd Monday of January Easter = first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March Observed date (federal holidays only): falls on Saturday → observed the Friday before falls on Sunday → observed the Monday after
Open How it’s calculated above to see this worked through with your own numbers.
What you enter
- Holiday
- Choose one of 19 options.Christmas · Christmas Eve · Columbus Day · Easter · Father's Day · Halloween · Independence Day · Juneteenth · Labor Day · Martin Luther King Jr. Day · Memorial Day · Mother's Day · New Year's Day · New Year's Eve · Presidents' Day · St. Patrick's Day · Thanksgiving · Valentine's Day · Veterans Day
- Year
- A number.from 1900 to 2200 · whole numbers only · defaults to 2026
What you get back
- Datemain answer
- Day of the week
- Observed on
- Days from today
- How the date is set
- Federal holiday?
What this assumes
- Federal observed dates follow 5 U.S.C. § 6103: a Saturday holiday is observed the preceding Friday, a Sunday holiday the following Monday.
- Easter is computed by the Gregorian computus; Orthodox Easter uses the Julian calendar and is not shown.
- Holiday rules are applied to every year in range, including years before a holiday was established — Juneteenth became federal only in 2021.
- Only US holidays are covered, and only the eleven federal ones have a legal observed date.
About this calculator
Half of the American holiday calendar is a fixed date and half is a weekday rule, which is why "when is Thanksgiving" is a question with a different answer every year while "when is Christmas" is not.
Fixed dates and floating ones
Fixed holidays sit on the same calendar date and move around the week: Christmas on 25 December, Independence Day on 4 July, New Year's Day on 1 January. These are the ones that land awkwardly — a Fourth of July on a Tuesday produces a country-wide long weekend nobody planned.
Floating holidays are defined by position instead: Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, Memorial Day the last Monday of May, Labor Day the first Monday of September. They always fall on the same weekday, which is the whole point — the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 deliberately moved several federal holidays to Mondays to create three-day weekends.
Easter is neither. It is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March, computed by an algorithm called the computus, and it swings across five weeks from 22 March to 25 April. Orthodox Easter applies the same rule on the Julian calendar and usually lands on a different Sunday.
The date and the day off are not the same thing
This is the part that catches people out. When a federal holiday falls at the weekend, the holiday itself does not move — but the observed day does:
- Falls on a Saturday → federal offices close the Friday before.
- Falls on a Sunday → federal offices close the Monday after.
So Independence Day 2026 is Saturday 4 July, and always will be, but the federal holiday is Friday 3 July. Banks, the postal service and most payrolls follow the observed date; private employers are under no obligation to and often do their own thing. If you are working out when a payment will clear or when the post will run, the observed date is the one that matters.
Which holidays are federal
Eleven: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The rest — Halloween, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter — are holidays in the cultural sense only. Nothing closes for them by law, and there is no observed-day rule.
Frequently asked questions
▸When is Thanksgiving?
The fourth Thursday of November, which puts it between the 22nd and the 28th. It has been fixed there by federal law since 1941, after a two-year experiment with the next-to-last Thursday that was unpopular enough to be reversed.
▸What happens when a holiday falls on a weekend?
For the 11 federal holidays, the observed day moves: a Saturday holiday is observed the Friday before, a Sunday holiday the Monday after. The holiday's own date does not change. Private employers are not bound by the rule, though most follow it.
▸Why does Easter move so much?
It is tied to the moon rather than the calendar — the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after 21 March. That places it anywhere from 22 March to 25 April, a five-week range, and it is the only major Western holiday computed that way.
▸How many federal holidays are there?
Eleven, after Juneteenth was added in 2021. They are the only days that close federal offices by law; everything else on the calendar, from Halloween to Mother's Day, is cultural rather than statutory.
▸Why are so many holidays on Mondays?
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 deliberately moved Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day to Mondays to create three-day weekends. Veterans Day was moved back to its fixed 11 November date in 1978 after objections that it broke the connection to Armistice Day.
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