Public holidays in Germany 2021-2025

Non-movable holidays

Non-statutory holidays are written in gray.

Moving Holidays in Germany

holiday	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Womens Carnival Day	Feb, 11th	Feb, 24th	Feb, 16th	Feb, 8th	Feb, 27th
Green Monday	Feb, 15th	Feb, 28th	Feb, 20th	Feb, 12th	Mar, 3rd
Ash Wednesday	Feb, 17th	Mar, 2nd	Feb, 22nd	Feb, 14th	Mar, 5th
Maundy Thursday	Apr, 1st	Apr, 14th	Apr, 6th	Mar, 28th	Apr, 17th
Good Friday	Apr, 2nd	Apr, 15th	Apr, 7th	Mar, 29th	Apr, 18th
Holy Saturday	Apr, 3rd	Apr, 16th	Apr, 8th	Mar, 30th	Apr, 19th
Easter Sunday	Apr, 4th	Apr, 17th	Apr, 9th	Mar, 31st	Apr, 20th
Easter Monday	Apr, 5th	Apr, 18th	Apr, 10th	Apr, 1st	Apr, 21st
Mother's Day	May, 9th	May, 8th	May, 14th	May, 12th	May, 11th
Ascension of Christ	May, 13th	May, 26th	May, 18th	May, 9th	May, 29th
Father's Day	May, 13th	May, 26th	May, 18th	May, 9th	May, 29th
Whit Sunday	May, 23rd	Jun, 5th	May, 28th	May, 19th	Jun, 8th
Whit Monday	May, 24th	Jun, 6th	May, 29th	May, 20th	Jun, 9th
Corpus Christi	Jun, 3rd	Jun, 16th	Jun, 8th	May, 30th	Jun, 19th
Remembrance Day	Nov, 14th	Nov, 13th	Nov, 19th	Nov, 17th	Nov, 16th
Day of Prayer and Repentance	Nov, 17th	Nov, 16th	Nov, 22nd	Nov, 20th	Nov, 19th
Sunday in commemoration of the dead	Nov, 21st	Nov, 20th	Nov, 26th	Nov, 24th	Nov, 23rd

Christmas on 24 December

Germany is one of the few countries whose main Christmas day is not December 25th, but the 24th. In ancient times one day ended with sunset, so that from a historical point of view "Christmas Eve" actually belongs to the next day. In Germany as well as in some other countries (e.g. Switzerland, Austria, Argentina, Hungary and Scandinavia) the giving of presents takes place on this evening. In the English speaking countries this happens one day later on Boxing Day.

Catholic special regulations

Germany is a country with an enormously high percentage of Christian population. Protestants and Catholics have comparable shares of just under 30% each. In order not to deprive Catholics of their important holidays, numerous special regulations for individual holidays have been established. For example, the Day of Prayer and Repentance and also the Assumption of the Virgin Mary are school holidays in all of Bavaria, but they are only public holidays in a few communities. Corpus Christi is a public holiday only in some communities of Thuringia and Saxony. All Saints' Day also plays hardly any special role in the calendar of the northern and eastern federal states.
Conversely, Reformation Day on October 31 is only free by law in the predominantly Protestant states. The bottom line is that there are more holidays in Catholic areas than in the predominantly Protestant ones.

Day of German Unity

Compared to other countries, the German national holiday has gone through turbulent times and has been postponed many times. The first day, which resembled a national holiday but was not yet a national holiday from a legal point of view, was January 18th, in honor of the Prussian coronation of the king in 1701. September 2nd followed from 1873 on, commemorating the capitulation of the French army in 1870. In the Weimar Republic, August 11 was chosen as constitution day. In National Socialism, May 1 was established as the "holiday of national labor". During the division of Germany, June 17 was considered a national day in the West, while in the East the day of the founding of the state (1949) was celebrated on October 7. It was not until reunification in 1990 that we arrived at the present day October 3.