Austria Public Holidays 2026
Austria’s federal holiday list has 13 entries in 2026 and, as in every year, the nine Bundesländer cannot add a regional one. Three dates are wasted on weekends — the Assumption (Sat 15 August), All Saints (Sun 1 November) and St Stephen’s Day (Sat 26 December) — because there is no substitute-day rule in Austrian law. The good news: New Year’s Day (Thursday) and Epiphany (Tuesday) sit only two working days apart, so Friday 2 January plus Monday 5 January turns the first week of 2026 into a six-day break.
At a glance
Austria has 13 official public holidays (13 days off) in 2026 and 9 long weekends; the longest break is New Year + Epiphany (Jan 1 – 6, 6 days).
| Public holidays | 13 |
|---|---|
| Total days off | 13 |
| Longest break | New Year + Epiphany · 6 days (Jan 1 – 6) |
| Long weekends | 9 |
Official public holidays
New Year's Day (January 1, 2026), Epiphany (Three Kings’ Day) (January 6, 2026), Easter Monday (April 6, 2026), Republic Day (Staatsfeiertag) (May 1, 2026), Ascension Day (May 14, 2026), Whit Monday (May 25, 2026), Corpus Christi (June 4, 2026), Assumption of Mary (August 15, 2026), National Day (Nationalfeiertag) (October 26, 2026), All Saints’ Day (November 1, 2026), Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2026), Christmas Day (December 25, 2026), St. Stephen’s Day (Second Christmas Day) (December 26, 2026)
Austria public holiday list
| Date | Day | Holiday | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2026 | Thursday | New Year's DayFalls on a Thursday. Friday 2 January is an easy four-day bridge.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| January 6, 2026 | Tuesday | Epiphany (Three Kings’ Day)Falls on a Tuesday: with Friday Jan 2 and Monday Jan 5 as vacation days, the period Jan 1–6 becomes a six-day break.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| April 6, 2026 | Monday | Easter MondayEaster Sunday is April 5. Karfreitag (Friday April 3) is not a public holiday in Austria.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 1, 2026 | Friday | Republic Day (Staatsfeiertag)Falls on a Friday — a three-day weekend with no leave required. Austria’s official national day, doubling as Labour Day.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 14, 2026 | Thursday | Ascension DayAlways a Thursday (39 days after Easter). Friday May 15 is the classic Fenstertag: one leave day, four days off.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 25, 2026 | Monday | Whit MondayPentecost Sunday is May 24, so this is a free three-day weekend.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| June 4, 2026 | Thursday | Corpus ChristiThursday, 60 days after Easter; Friday June 5 is the next bridge day — one leave day, four days off.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| August 15, 2026 | Saturday | Assumption of MaryFalls on a Saturday in 2026 — with no substitute day, the break is lost for Monday-to-Friday workers.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| October 26, 2026 | Monday | National Day (Nationalfeiertag)Falls on a Monday — a three-day weekend to round off October.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| November 1, 2026 | Sunday | All Saints’ DayFalls on a Sunday in 2026 — lost outright, as Austrian law grants no substitute.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| December 8, 2026 | Tuesday | Immaculate ConceptionFalls on a Tuesday: Monday December 7 is a Fenstertag that turns it into a four-day break. § 13a ARG additionally lets retail shops trade on 8 December when that day is a workday, as Tuesday 8 December 2026 is; employees may refuse without giving a reason.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| December 25, 2026 | Friday | Christmas DayFalls on a Friday. December 24 is not a statutory holiday, but many collective agreements free staff from the afternoon and shops close early.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| December 26, 2026 | Saturday | St. Stephen’s Day (Second Christmas Day)Falls on a Saturday — the second Christmas day is wasted in 2026.Public holiday | Public holiday |
Nationwide holidays
13
Regional holidays
None (federal list)
Lost to weekends
3 (Aug 15, Nov 1, Dec 26)
Longest break
Easter · 4 days
Top Fenstertag
Fri May 15
2026 Austria calendar
01January
02February
03March
04April
05May
06June
07July
08August
09September
10October
11November
12December
Karfreitag: not on the calendar, not in the export
Good Friday is deliberately kept out of the holiday table above. It was removed as a statutory work-free day by BGBl. I Nr. 22/2019 (the paragraph that used to cover it, § 7 Abs. 3 ARG, was repealed effective 22 March 2019), and it is not in § 1 of the Feiertagsruhegesetz 1957. Today it survives only as a confessional exemption at school and as a “quiet holiday” under some Länder event laws. Because the table feeds the ICS/CSV/PDF downloads, adding it here would put a working day into your real calendar.
Austria long weekends in 2026
New Year + Epiphany
6 daysJan 1 – 6
Two vacation days (Fri Jan 2, Mon Jan 5) between Thursday’s New Year and Tuesday’s Epiphany produce the longest break of the Austrian winter.
Easter with Karfreitag
4 daysApr 3 – 6
Only if you take Karfreitag (Fri Apr 3) as a personal or vacation day — Easter Monday Apr 6 is the statutory one.
Republic Day (Staatsfeiertag)
3 daysMay 1 – 3
Ascension bridge
4 daysMay 14 – 17
Ascension Day Thu May 14 plus Friday May 15 off — the classic four-day spring break.
Whit Monday
3 daysMay 23 – 25
Corpus Christi bridge
4 daysJun 4 – 7
Corpus Christi Thu June 4 plus Friday June 5 — four days right at the start of summer.
National Day (Nationalfeiertag)
3 daysOct 24 – 26
Immaculate Conception bridge
4 daysDec 5 – 8
Tuesday Dec 8 is the holiday; Monday Dec 7 is the bridge day: one vacation day, four days off.
Christmas Day & St. Stephen’s Day (Second Christmas Day)
3 daysDec 25 – 27
Thirteen federal holidays — and no state holidays at all
§ 1 of the Feiertagsruhegesetz 1957 (BGBl. Nr. 153/1957) fixes one closed list of 13 days for the entire federation, and § 7 Abs. 2 of the Arbeitsruhegesetz (ARG) repeats it for labour law. Austrian Länder cannot create an additional work-free public holiday for private-sector employees, so there is no Austrian equivalent of a Bavarian or Saxon extra day: 13 is the number everywhere, from Vienna to Burgenland.
What the Länder do have are patron-saint festival days, and the Federal Ministry of Education lists them as days when schools are closed: St Joseph (19 March) in Kärnten, Steiermark, Tirol and Vorarlberg; St Florian (4 May) in Oberösterreich; St Rupert (24 September) in Salzburg; St Martin (11 November) in Burgenland; and St Leopold (15 November) in Niederösterreich and Vienna. These are not holidays for everybody else — if you work or travel in those Länder on those dates, expect normal business hours and closed schools.
Aggregators that still print a Kärnten “plebiscite day” on 10 October are describing a date that is absent from every official list we checked: it does not appear in § 1 Feiertagsruhegesetz 1957, nor in the ministry’s school-closure list, nor in the cross-check APIs we compare against. We do not publish it.
No substitute days: when a holiday hits a weekend, it is gone
Austria has neither the British “next Monday” rule nor the Japanese substitute holiday. If a public holiday lands on a Sunday, § 7 Abs. 7 ARG simply applies the ordinary Sunday-rest rules, and § 2 Abs. 4 of the Feiertagsruhegesetz switches off the extra protections — you do not get another day. A Saturday holiday is just as unrecoverable for a normal five-day week. In 2026 that costs three days: the Assumption (Sat 15 August), All Saints (Sun 1 November) and St Stephen’s Day (Sat 26 December).
Pay is not affected: § 9 ARG keeps the holiday wage for work that the holiday cancels. The loss is purely the day off itself, which is why the weekday-vs-weekend pattern of a given year matters so much to Austrian holiday planning.
Fenstertage 2026: the January plan is the big one
A Fenstertag (“window day”) is the working day that sits between a holiday and the weekend, filled with vacation. 2026 has three Thursday holidays — New Year’s Day (1 January), Ascension (14 May) and Corpus Christi (4 June) — so Fridays 2 January, 15 May and 5 June each buy four days off for one day of leave. The standout is January: two vacation days (Fri 2 and Mon 5 January) connect Thursday’s New Year to Tuesday’s Epiphany for six consecutive days off.
The first week of January is peak season for Austrian ski resorts. If that is your week, book accommodation and lift passes months ahead — and remember that 5 January is a normal working day unless you take it yourself.
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Official sources & data
- Feiertagsruhegesetz 1957, § 1 (BGBl. Nr. 153/1957, geltende Fassung)Visit sourceRechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (Bundeskanzleramt)
- Arbeitsruhegesetz – ARG, § 7 Abs. 2 und 7, § 7a, § 9, § 13a (Sonderregelung für den 8. Dezember), § 33a Abs. 28Visit sourceRechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (Bundeskanzleramt)
- Gesetzliche Feiertage, Allerseelentag, Festtage der LandespatroneVisit sourceBundesministerium für Bildung (Bundesregierung Österreich)
- Nager.Date public holidays API — Austria 2026Visit sourceNager.Date (open-source holiday data)
Frequently asked questions
How many public holidays does Austria have in 2026?
Thirteen — identical in all nine Bundesländer, because only federal law can create a public holiday. Three of them fall on a weekend in 2026 (15 August, 1 November, 26 December), so a Monday-to-Friday employee gets ten actual days off.
What is the longest holiday break in Austria in 2026?
The longest break in Austria is New Year + Epiphany (Jan 1 – 6, 6 days).
What are the official public holidays in Austria in 2026?
Austria has 13 official public holidays in 2026: New Year's Day (January 1, 2026), Epiphany (Three Kings’ Day) (January 6, 2026), Easter Monday (April 6, 2026), Republic Day (Staatsfeiertag) (May 1, 2026), Ascension Day (May 14, 2026), Whit Monday (May 25, 2026), Corpus Christi (June 4, 2026), Assumption of Mary (August 15, 2026), National Day (Nationalfeiertag) (October 26, 2026), All Saints’ Day (November 1, 2026), Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2026), Christmas Day (December 25, 2026), St. Stephen’s Day (Second Christmas Day) (December 26, 2026).
Is Good Friday a public holiday in Austria in 2026?
No. April 3, 2026 is a normal working day for everyone. The denominational Good Friday for Protestant, Old Catholic and Methodist staff was repealed by the reform in BGBl. I Nr. 22/2019; § 33a Abs. 28 ARG even declares collective-agreement clauses that single out Good Friday ineffective. The successor right is § 7a ARG: one self-chosen vacation day per year (“persönlicher Feiertag”), announced in writing three months ahead.
Which Austrian holidays fall on a weekend in 2026?
Three: the Assumption on Saturday 15 August, All Saints on Sunday 1 November and St Stephen’s Day on Saturday 26 December. Austria has no substitute-day mechanism, so none of them is moved to a weekday — the second Christmas day in particular makes a noticeable difference if you take the whole week off.
Can I really get six days off in January 2026?
Yes — six calendar days from Thursday 1 January to Tuesday 6 January, using exactly two vacation days. Friday 2 January and Monday 5 January are the only working days in between, and neither is a holiday. That makes the first week of 2026 the busiest week of the Austrian ski season.
Are there regional holidays in Austria that only apply in one Bundesland?
Not as work-free public holidays. The patron-saint days (19 March, 4 May, 24 September, 11 November, 15 November) exist in the Federal Ministry of Education’s list of school closures and in Länder practice, but they are not in the federal holiday statute, so businesses and transport run normally. They are listed here as information, not as days off.
Do shops and supermarkets have to close on Austrian public holidays?
Holiday rest is federal law (§ 7 ARG and § 1 of the Feiertagsruhegesetz 1957), so retail staff cannot be scheduled to work on any of the 13 public holidays in any of the nine Länder; the ordinary trading-hours rules are set by each Land. The one holiday-specific carve-out is § 13a ARG: shops may open on 8 December whenever that day is not a Sunday (in 2026 it is a Tuesday), and employees may refuse to work it without giving a reason. A Sunday holiday such as 1 November 2026 therefore brings no extra opening at all — it just stacks a holiday on a day that was already closed.
