US federal holidays on a weekend: which day is observed
When a federal holiday falls on a Saturday, most federal employees get the Friday before off. When it falls on a Sunday, they get the Monday after. The Saturday rule is written into 5 U.S.C. 6103(b), and the Sunday rule comes from Executive Order 11582, as the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) explains on its federal holidays page.
Only five of the 11 holidays can land on a weekend
The law sets 11 federal holidays. Six are defined as a weekday, such as "the third Monday in January", so they never move. The five with a fixed date can fall on a Saturday or a Sunday.
| Holiday | Date in the law | Can fall on a weekend |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | January 1 | Yes |
| Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. | Third Monday in January | No |
| Washington's Birthday | Third Monday in February | No |
| Memorial Day | Last Monday in May | No |
| Juneteenth National Independence Day | June 19 | Yes |
| Independence Day | July 4 | Yes |
| Labor Day | First Monday in September | No |
| Columbus Day | Second Monday in October | No |
| Veterans Day | November 11 | Yes |
| Thanksgiving Day | Fourth Thursday in November | No |
| Christmas Day | December 25 | Yes |
Weekend holidays from 2026 to 2028
| Holiday | Falls on | Day off |
|---|---|---|
| Independence Day | Sat, July 4, 2026 | Fri, July 3, 2026 |
| Juneteenth | Sat, June 19, 2027 | Fri, June 18, 2027 |
| Independence Day | Sun, July 4, 2027 | Mon, July 5, 2027 |
| Christmas Day | Sat, Dec 25, 2027 | Fri, Dec 24, 2027 |
| New Year's Day | Sat, Jan 1, 2028 | Fri, Dec 31, 2027 |
| Veterans Day | Sat, Nov 11, 2028 | Fri, Nov 10, 2028 |
Every other federal holiday in these three years falls on a weekday and is observed on the day itself. These dates match the schedules OPM publishes.
New Year's Day 2028 is observed in 2027
Because January 1, 2028 is a Saturday, the day off is Friday, December 31, 2027. That moves a holiday into the previous calendar year. Someone working Monday to Friday gets 12 weekday holidays in 2027 and only 10 in 2028. If you count business days across a year end, look at both years.
What this means for business-day counts
Daycount follows the observed dates. With the US calendar selected it skips Friday, July 3, 2026, and Saturday, July 4 is already a weekend, so the week of June 29, 2026 has 4 business days. The holiday list in the calculator shows both the actual date and the observed day. Not every rule works like this: the federal Truth in Lending rules count an observed Friday holiday as a business day, as explained in how to count business days.
Days that aren't federal holidays
- Inauguration Day (January 20 every fourth year, next in 2029) is a holiday only for federal employees in the Washington, DC, area, so the calculator doesn't skip it.
- Election Day and the day after Thanksgiving are not on the federal list.
- Extra days off by executive order are one-off closures, not legal holidays. Executive Order 14371, for example, was signed on December 18, 2025 and closed federal agencies on December 24 and 26, 2025. The calculator doesn't include these.
- State holidays are set by each state, and private employers choose their own days off.
See the US federal holidays for any year →