Colombia Public Holidays 2026
Colombia has 19 paid national holidays (festivos) in 2026, and every single one of them falls on a weekday: Ley 51 de 1983 — the Ley Emiliani — pulls ten festivals onto the Monday after them, so 2026 delivers twelve Monday breaks and no lost dates. The list grows from eighteen to nineteen this year, because Ley 2578 of 1 June 2026 makes 9 July, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá, a national festivo, enjoyed on Monday 13 July. Two consecutive Mondays in July (13 and 20) plus Maundy Thursday and Good Friday ahead of Easter give the year its two standout runs.
At a glance
Colombia has 19 official public holidays (19 days off) in 2026 and 16 long weekends; the longest break is Holy Week (Semana Santa) (Apr 2 – 5, 4 days).
| Public holidays | 19 |
|---|---|
| Total days off | 19 |
| Longest break | Holy Week (Semana Santa) · 4 days (Apr 2 – 5) |
| Long weekends | 16 |
Official public holidays
New Year's Day (January 1, 2026), Epiphany (Día de los Reyes Magos) (January 12, 2026), Saint Joseph's Day (Día de San José) (March 23, 2026), Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo) (April 2, 2026), Good Friday (April 3, 2026), Labour Day (Día del Trabajo) (May 1, 2026), Ascension Day (Ascensión del Señor) (May 18, 2026), Corpus Christi (June 8, 2026), Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón) (June 15, 2026), Saint Peter and Saint Paul (June 29, 2026), Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá (July 13, 2026), Declaration of Independence (Grito de Independencia) (July 20, 2026), Battle of Boyacá (August 7, 2026), Assumption of Mary (August 17, 2026), Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Day (Día de la Raza) (October 12, 2026), All Saints’ Day (November 2, 2026), Independence of Cartagena (November 16, 2026), Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2026), Christmas Day (December 25, 2026)
National paid festivos
19 days (18 in 2025)
Holidays falling on Monday
12 of 19
Lost to a weekend
0 — all 19 are Mon–Fri
Longest automatic break
4 days, Apr 2–5 (Holy Week)
Colombia public holiday list
| Date | Day | Holiday | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2026 | Thursday | New Year's DayThursday and immovable — Ley 51 never moves 1 January, so the year opens with a single mid-week day off.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| January 12, 2026 | Monday | Epiphany (Día de los Reyes Magos)The 6 January feast falls on a Tuesday, so the paid rest is enjoyed on Monday 12 January — children receive gifts on the evening of 6 January.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| March 23, 2026 | Monday | Saint Joseph's Day (Día de San José)19 March 2026 is a Thursday; the rest moves to Monday 23 March, giving the last full week of Lent a three-day run.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| April 2, 2026 | Thursday | Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo)Easter is 5 April 2026, so Maundy Thursday is 2 April. It is one of the eight dates Ley 51 refuses to move.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| April 3, 2026 | Friday | Good FridayThe strongest day of Semana Santa: with Thursday, the weekend and Easter Sunday it makes a four-day break with no leave taken.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 1, 2026 | Friday | Labour Day (Día del Trabajo)Fixed to 1 May and never moved: in 2026 it lands on a Friday, so it brackets the weekend on its own.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 18, 2026 | Monday | Ascension Day (Ascensión del Señor)Ascension is Thursday 14 May (Easter + 39 days); Colombian law moves the paid rest to Monday 18 May, so the Thursday itself is a working day.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| June 8, 2026 | Monday | Corpus ChristiThursday 4 June (Easter + 60) transferred to Monday 8 June — the third of the four movable Easter-linked feasts.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| June 15, 2026 | Monday | Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón)Liturgically the Friday 12 June (Easter + 68); enjoyed on Monday 15 June. June carries three movable festivos in 2026.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| June 29, 2026 | Monday | Saint Peter and Saint Paul29 June 2026 is already a Monday, so no transfer applies — the date keeps its own name and its own day off.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| July 13, 2026 | Monday | Our Lady of the Rosary of ChiquinquiráNew national festivo for 2026: Ley 2578 (1 June 2026) makes the 9 July feast religious in character and applies Ley 51, so it is enjoyed Monday 13 July. 2025 has no equivalent row.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| July 20, 2026 | Monday | Declaration of Independence (Grito de Independencia)Immovable: Colombia’s independence commemorates 20 July whatever weekday it lands on. In 2026 that is a Monday, one week after Chiquinquirá.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| August 7, 2026 | Friday | Battle of BoyacáFixed and immovable; Friday 7 August 2026 gives a natural three-day weekend in the second half of the year.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| August 17, 2026 | Monday | Assumption of Mary15 August 2026 is a Saturday, so the paid rest is Monday 17 August.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| October 12, 2026 | Monday | Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Day (Día de la Raza)Still widely searched as Día de la Raza; Congress approved renaming it “Día de la Diversidad Étnica y Cultural de la Nación Colombiana” in December 2023. 12 October 2026 is a Monday already.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| November 2, 2026 | Monday | All Saints’ Day1 November 2026 is a Sunday, and Ley 51 is explicit that even then the rest moves to the Monday — 2 November.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| November 16, 2026 | Monday | Independence of Cartagena11 November 2026 is a Wednesday; the rest is enjoyed on Monday 16 November.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| December 8, 2026 | Tuesday | Immaculate ConceptionImmovable; Tuesday 8 December 2026 is the year’s classic bridge day — one Monday leave turns it into a four-day run.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| December 25, 2026 | Friday | Christmas DayFixed to 25 December; a Friday in 2026, so Christmas brackets the weekend without any help from the law.Public holiday | Public holiday |
2026 Colombia calendar
01January
02February
03March
04April
05May
06June
07July
08August
09September
10October
11November
12December
Colombia long weekends in 2026
Epiphany (Día de los Reyes Magos)
3 daysJan 10 – 12
Saint Joseph's Day (Día de San José)
3 daysMar 21 – 23
Holy Week (Semana Santa)
4 daysApr 2 – 5
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday run into the weekend and Easter Sunday: four days off with no leave. Taking Monday 6 April makes it five.
Labour Day (Día del Trabajo)
3 daysMay 1 – 3
Ascension Day (Ascensión del Señor)
3 daysMay 16 – 18
Corpus Christi
3 daysJun 6 – 8
Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón)
3 daysJun 13 – 15
Saint Peter and Saint Paul
3 daysJun 27 – 29
Chiquinquirá Monday
3 daysJul 11 – 13
The first-ever national Chiquinquirá break, one week ahead of the 20 July independence festivities.
Grito de Independencia
3 daysJul 18 – 20
A second Monday in July: 20 July 1810 is fixed and happens to fall on a Monday, so two long weekends sit back to back.
Battle of Boyacá
3 daysAug 7 – 9
Assumption of Mary
3 daysAug 15 – 17
Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Day (Día de la Raza)
3 daysOct 10 – 12
All Saints’ Day
3 daysOct 31 – Nov 2
Independence of Cartagena
3 daysNov 14 – 16
Christmas Day
3 daysDec 25 – 27
Ley 51 de 1983: the law that puts Colombia’s holidays on Monday
Article 1 of Ley 51 de 1983 grants paid rest on thirteen fixed dates plus Jueves Santo, Viernes Santo, Ascensión, Corpus Christi and Sagrado Corazón — eighteen festivos. A second paragraph then says that ten of them, when they do not fall on a Monday, are moved to the Monday following the feast, and that a festival landing on Sunday moves to Monday just the same. The ten transferable dates are 6 January, 19 March, 29 June, 15 August, 12 October, 1 November, 11 November and the three Easter-counted feasts. Ley 2578 de 2026 adds an eleventh: 9 July, Chiquinquirá.
Eight dates can never be moved: 1 January, 1 May, 20 July, 7 August, 8 December, 25 December, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. If one of those lands on a weekend, Colombia grants no substitute day — in 2027, 1 May, 7 August and 25 December are all Saturdays and simply disappear from the working week. 2026 is unusually lucky: none of the nineteen falls on a weekend, because 20 July and 29 June happen to be Mondays.
New for 2026: 9 July, Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá
Ley 2578, dated 1 June 2026, declares the feast of “Nuestro Señor del Rosario de Chiquinquirá” on 9 July a national festivo binding both the public and private sectors, expressly religious in character, and instructs that Ley 51 de 1983 determines the day on which the rest is enjoyed. 9 July 2026 is a Thursday, so the day off is Monday 13 July 2026. Because the law took effect on promulgation, 2025 has eighteen festivos and 2026 onward has nineteen — a difference every planner should check when comparing years.
No makeup workdays, no lost Mondays: how the transfer works
Colombia transfers the day of rest, not the festival. When a movable festivo is enjoyed on Monday, that Monday replaces the weekly Sunday rest (Ley 51, art. 1, paragraph 3), so nothing is added to the annual total and no weekend is converted back into a working day. There is no Chinese-style swap of weekend days for weekdays: Bogotá never schedules a Saturday to make up for a moved holiday. Conversely, unlike Sweden or Finland, no holiday is ever “pushed” to a Monday when it falls on a weekend — the transfer follows the statute’s list of ten (eleven from 2026) festivals only.
What Colombia does not list either: bank-only closures, school breaks and the many municipal fiestas (Barranquilla’s carnival, Medellín’s Ferias, the Feira de Manizales). Those are real absences for some workers and none of them is a festivo under Ley 51, so they are absent from this table and from our ICS, CSV and PDF exports.
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Official sources & data
- Ley 51 de 1983 — «Por la cual se traslada el descanso remunerado de algunos días festivos» (Gestor Normativo)Visit sourceDepartamento Administrativo de la Función Pública (Función Pública, Colombia)
- Nager.Date public-holiday dataset — Colombia (dates cross-checked for 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028)Visit sourceNager.Date (open-source public holiday dataset)
- Ley 2578 del 1 de junio de 2026 — art. 6 declara el Día de Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Chiquinquirá (9 de julio) festivo nacionalVisit sourceSecretaría Jurídico Documental de la Presidencia de la República (DAPRE)
- «Es Ley: el Día de la Raza será el Día de la Diversidad Étnica y Cultural de la Nación Colombiana» (12-12-2023)Visit sourceMinisterio de las Culturas, las Artes y los Saberes de Colombia
Frequently asked questions
How many public holidays does Colombia have in 2026?
19, all of them paid rest days under Ley 51 de 1983 plus the new Ley 2578 de 2026. Twelve of the nineteen fall on a Monday because of the transfer rule; none falls on a weekend in 2026.
What is the longest holiday break in Colombia in 2026?
The longest break in Colombia is Holy Week (Semana Santa) (Apr 2 – 5, 4 days).
What are the official public holidays in Colombia in 2026?
Colombia has 19 official public holidays in 2026: New Year's Day (January 1, 2026), Epiphany (Día de los Reyes Magos) (January 12, 2026), Saint Joseph's Day (Día de San José) (March 23, 2026), Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo) (April 2, 2026), Good Friday (April 3, 2026), Labour Day (Día del Trabajo) (May 1, 2026), Ascension Day (Ascensión del Señor) (May 18, 2026), Corpus Christi (June 8, 2026), Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón) (June 15, 2026), Saint Peter and Saint Paul (June 29, 2026), Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá (July 13, 2026), Declaration of Independence (Grito de Independencia) (July 20, 2026), Battle of Boyacá (August 7, 2026), Assumption of Mary (August 17, 2026), Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Day (Día de la Raza) (October 12, 2026), All Saints’ Day (November 2, 2026), Independence of Cartagena (November 16, 2026), Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2026), Christmas Day (December 25, 2026).
Why are so many Colombian holidays on Monday?
Ley 51 de 1983, nicknamed Ley Emiliani after its rapporteur, moves ten festivals (eleven from 2026) to the Monday following the actual date whenever they do not already fall on a Monday — Sunday included. That is why Epiphany (6 January) and All Saints (1 November) are enjoyed later than the feast itself, and why Colombia is one of the world’s densest long-weekend calendars.
Does Colombia have makeup workdays or substitute holidays?
No. There is no weekend working day created to compensate a moved holiday, and immovable festivals that fall on a Saturday or Sunday are simply lost — 1 May 2027 (Sat), 7 August 2027 (Sat) and 25 December 2027 (Sat) give nothing back. The only flexibility the law gives is the Monday transfer for its listed festivals.
Is 9 July 2026 a holiday in Colombia, and when is it actually taken?
Yes. Ley 2578 of 1 June 2026 made the Chiquinquirá feast a national festivo, and because 9 July 2026 is a Thursday, the paid rest is Monday 13 July 2026. It is the nineteenth festivo; 2025’s calendar has only eighteen.
Which Colombian holidays cannot be moved to Monday?
Eight: 1 January, 1 May, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, 20 July, 7 August, 8 December and 25 December. Their weekday is luck of the draw, which is why 2027 loses three of them to Saturdays while 2026 loses none.
Is 12 October still called Día de la Raza?
In everyday speech and in search engines, yes. Colombia’s congress approved in December 2023 renaming the 12 October festivo to “Día de la Diversidad Étnica y Cultural de la Nación Colombiana”; older names such as Columbus Day or Race Day still appear on calendars and in law texts. The date and the Monday transfer are unaffected.
