US Federal Holidays

DateMath applies the rules of 5 U.S.C. 6103 to the year: fixed dates for New Year's Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Veterans Day and Christmas, and the nth Monday or Thursday of the month for the others, such as the last Monday in May for Memorial Day. A fixed-date holiday on a Saturday is observed on the Friday before and one on a Sunday on the Monday after, the rule the Office of Personnel Management applies to federal employees. These are the same dates the business days calculator skips.

• US federal holidays. DateMath skips the 11 annual holidays of 5 U.S.C. 6103 on the days they are observed for federal employees, as the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lists them: a Saturday holiday on the Friday before, a Sunday holiday on the Monday after. Source: 5 U.S.C. 6103, OPM federal holidays.
• The Gregorian calendar. DateMath treats every date as a Gregorian date, with its leap-year rule: a year divisible by 4 is a leap year, except century years not divisible by 400, so 2000 had a February 29 and 2100 will not. Source: Gregorian calendar.

DateMath's date math is tested against more than 100 cases worked out by hand. Every worked example and table on the site is computed with the same code the calculators run, so a page and its calculator can't disagree.

Federal law, 5 U.S.C. 6103, sets 11 annual holidays. Five are on fixed dates and move to the nearest weekday when they fall on a weekend; six are always on a Monday or, for Thanksgiving, a Thursday, so they never need an observed day.

The Monday holidays and Thanksgiving land on a different date every year. Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, always falls between May 25 and May 31; Labor Day, the first Monday in September, between September 1 and 7.

A fixed-date holiday on a Saturday is observed on the Friday before, and one on a Sunday on the Monday after. The table gives the weekday, and the observed date when it differs.

New Year's Day is the one holiday that can be observed in the year before: when January 1 is a Saturday, federal offices close on Friday, December 31.

Each of these years has a page with every holiday, its weekday, the long weekends and the workdays per month:

• Labor Day 2023 and every federal holiday of 2023: Labor Day is Monday, September 4, 2023.
• Veterans Day 2027 and every federal holiday of 2027: Veterans Day is Thursday, November 11, 2027.
• Memorial Day 2028 and every federal holiday of 2028: Memorial Day is Monday, May 29, 2028.

The holidays apply to federal employees, and they set the schedule for much else: post offices close, most banks follow the Federal Reserve, which closes on the same days, and many employers give the same days off. Private employers aren't required to, and states add holidays of their own. Inauguration Day, every four years on January 20 (January 21 when the 20th is a Sunday), is a holiday only for federal employees in the Washington, D.C. area.

To count the workdays between two dates without these holidays, use the business days calculator; to see them on a calendar, the printable calendar; and to count down to Christmas, the Christmas countdown.