Public holidays in Germany
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Public holidays in Germany can be declared by law either by the Federal German authorities or by the Länder for their respective jurisdictions. The constitution requires that there must be some public holidays. At present the only federal holiday is German Unity Day (Unity Treaty, Art. 2 sect. 2); all the other holidays, even those celebrated all over Germany, are prescribed by state legislation.
By law, "the Sundays and the public holidays remain protected as days of rest from work and of spiritual elevation" (Art. 139 WRV, part of the German constitution via Art. 140 GG). Thus all Sundays are, in a manner, public holidays, but they are not usually recognised within the term "holiday" (except for, normally, Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday).
List by state
Notes
✔ – Public holiday is celebrated in that state.
- Schools are closed all over the state on that day.
- From 2019 onwards.
- One-time public holiday in all states, including those not normally observing Reformation Day, to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.
- Four states adopted the Reformation Day as permanent holiday starting in 2018 (Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein (see table for references)).
- For states where some holidays are not observed uniformly all over the state, such holidays are included in the state's total number of holidays if their celebration is predominant and widespread in that state:
In addition, the state of Brandenburg formally declared Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday as public holidays. As these are Sundays anyway, they have been left out by the other states, nor counted in the table above (the state of Hesse even declared all Sundays public holidays).
Quiet days
A couple of days are designated as stille Tage ("quiet days") by state legislation, which regularly means that public dancing or sport events, music at inns (if live or if not much quieter than usual) etc. are prohibited.
Some public holidays or commemorations are quiet days:
- Ash Wednesday (in Bavaria)
- Holy Thursday (in some states; in some of them beginning in the evening)
- Good Friday
- Holy Saturday (in some states)
- Buß- und Bettag (where it is a public holiday and in a couple of other states)
- All Saints' Day (where it is a public holiday)
- All Souls' Day (in Lower Saxony and the Saarland)
- Volkstrauertag
- Totensonntag (the last Sunday of the Protestant liturgical year)
- Christmas Eve (beginning in the afternoon, in some states)
The status of quiet days is also given to festivities joyous in nature: in Hesse, the highest Christian holidays are half-quiet days (until midday) and in Rhineland-Palatinate, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day are two-thirds-quiet days (until 4 pm). For details, see the article Dancing ban.
Flag days
A yet third category that may sometimes be called "holidays" in a sense are the "flag days" (Beflaggungstage). Only the very highest institutions and the military use the national flags at every day, so the directives when flags are to be displayed mark the days in question as special.
Flags are to be shown by Federal Decree on
- Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January, half-mast)
- Labour Day (1 May)
- Europe Day (9 May)
- Constitution Day (23 May)
- Popular Uprising Day (17 June) This day was public holiday under the title of "German Unity Day" from 1954 until 1990 when that unity actually was achieved.
- Resistance Day (20 July)
- German Unity Day (3 October)
- Memorial Day (half-mast) (two Sundays before the first Sunday of Advent)
- Election Day (Bundestag, European Parliament)
and by state decrees on other days, such as election days for state parliaments, state constitution days, anniversary of the election of the Federal President (in Berlin) and so forth.
Frequently flags are ordered ad hoc to be shown at half-mast in cases of national mourning.
Unofficial holidays
Either Carnival Monday ("Rosenmontag") or Shrove Tuesday is a de facto holiday in some towns and cities in Catholic western and southern Germany which have a strong Carnival tradition.
Christmas Eve may sometimes be treated as a holiday. Most places will be closed in the afternoon, and many businesses and most schools will be closed the entire day.[citation needed]
April Fools' Day, while not a holiday in the traditional sense, is celebrated in Germany.
Oktoberfest is an annual two-week festival held in Munich, Germany during late September and early October. It is the largest folk festival in the world, though not a formally recognized holiday in any way.
Customs about holidays
Ascension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt) and Corpus Christi (Fronleichnam) are both always on Thursdays. By taking only one day's leave, employees can have a four-day weekend.
The Three Kings Day, better known as Epiphany, is 6 January, the day after the 12 days of Christmas. In parts of Germany, it has its own local customs.
Public holidays in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
| Holiday | Local name | Date | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year | Neujahr | 1 January | |
| Good Friday | Karfreitag | Easter Sunday – 2d | |
| Easter Monday | Ostermontag | Easter Sunday + 1d | until 1967 and in 1990 |
| Labour Day | Internationaler Kampf- und Feiertag der Werktätigen für Frieden und Sozialismus | 1 May | |
| Liberation Day | Tag der Befreiung | 8 May | until 1967 and in 1985 |
| Victory Day | Tag des Sieges | 9 May | only in 1975 |
| Ascension Day | Christi Himmelfahrt | Easter Sunday + 39d | until 1967 and in 1990 |
| Whit Monday | Pfingstmontag | Easter Sunday + 50d | |
| Day of the Republic | Tag der Republik | 7 October | |
| Reformation Day | Reformationstag | 31 October | until 1966 |
| Day of Repentance and Prayer | Buß- und Bettag | Wed. before 23 November | until 1966 |
| Christmas Day | 1. Weihnachtsfeiertag | 25 December | |
| St Stephen's Day / Boxing Day | 2. Weihnachtsfeiertag | 26 December |