Colombia Public Holidays 2028
2028 is the most favourable year of this stretch for anyone counting Mondays: of Colombia’s nineteen national festivos, fourteen are enjoyed on a Monday, eighteen fall on a weekday, and only 1 January — immovable and a Saturday in 2028 — is lost. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are 13 and 14 April ahead of Easter on 16 April, giving the year’s only four-day automatic run, and July carries consecutive Monday breaks on the 3rd (Saints Peter and Paul) and the 10th (Chiquinquirá). Every date follows from Ley 51 de 1983, the 2026 Chiquinquirá law and the Gregorian computus — no Colombian decree is awaited.
At a glance
Colombia has 19 official public holidays (19 days off) in 2028 and 16 long weekends; the longest break is Holy Week (Semana Santa) (Apr 13 – 16, 4 days).
| Public holidays | 19 |
|---|---|
| Total days off | 19 |
| Longest break | Holy Week (Semana Santa) · 4 days (Apr 13 – 16) |
| Long weekends | 16 |
Official public holidays
New Year's Day (January 1, 2028), Epiphany (Día de los Reyes Magos) (January 10, 2028), Saint Joseph's Day (Día de San José) (March 20, 2028), Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo) (April 13, 2028), Good Friday (April 14, 2028), Labour Day (Día del Trabajo) (May 1, 2028), Ascension Day (Ascensión del Señor) (May 29, 2028), Corpus Christi (June 19, 2028), Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón) (June 26, 2028), Saint Peter and Saint Paul (July 3, 2028), Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá (July 10, 2028), Declaration of Independence (Grito de Independencia) (July 20, 2028), Battle of Boyacá (August 7, 2028), Assumption of Mary (August 21, 2028), Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Day (Día de la Raza) (October 16, 2028), All Saints’ Day (November 6, 2028), Independence of Cartagena (November 13, 2028), Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2028), Christmas Day (December 25, 2028)
National paid festivos
19 days, 18 on weekdays
Festivos enjoyed on Monday
14 of 19
Lost to a weekend
1 — 1 January (Saturday)
Breaks of 3 days or more
16 windows, longest 13–16 April
Colombia public holiday list
| Date | Day | Holiday | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2028 | Saturday | New Year's DaySaturday and immovable — the only 2028 date a Monday-to-Friday worker loses, and no substitute exists.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| January 10, 2028 | Monday | Epiphany (Día de los Reyes Magos)6 January 2028 is a Thursday, so the rest is Monday 10 January.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| March 20, 2028 | Monday | Saint Joseph's Day (Día de San José)19 March 2028 falls on a Sunday; Ley 51 is explicit that a Sunday festival still moves to Monday, so the rest is 20 March.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| April 13, 2028 | Thursday | Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo)Easter 2028 is 16 April, putting Maundy Thursday on 13 April — immovable.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| April 14, 2028 | Friday | Good FridayWith Thursday, the weekend and Easter Sunday this is 2028’s only automatic four-day break — and the peak Semana Santa travel window.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 1, 2028 | Monday | Labour Day (Día del Trabajo)1 May 2028 is a Monday by itself: no transfer needed, and May opens with a three-day weekend.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 29, 2028 | Monday | Ascension Day (Ascensión del Señor)The Thursday feast is 25 May (Easter + 39); the paid rest transfers to Monday 29 May.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| June 19, 2028 | Monday | Corpus ChristiThursday 15 June (Easter + 60), transferred to Monday 19 June.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| June 26, 2028 | Monday | Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón)Liturgically Friday 23 June (Easter + 68); the rest is Monday 26 June — the third Monday in four weeks.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| July 3, 2028 | Monday | Saint Peter and Saint Paul29 June 2028 is a Thursday, so the rest is Monday 3 July — one week ahead of Chiquinquirá.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| July 10, 2028 | Monday | Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá9 July 2028 is a Sunday, and under Ley 2578 with Ley 51 the rest still moves to Monday 10 July. A rare case where the movable list touches itself on two consecutive Mondays.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| July 20, 2028 | Thursday | Declaration of Independence (Grito de Independencia)Thursday, immovable; Friday 21 July is the bridge day that turns it into a four-day break.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| August 7, 2028 | Monday | Battle of Boyacá7 August 2028 is a Monday already, so the fixed date and the long weekend coincide — unlike 2027, when it fell on a Saturday and was lost.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| August 21, 2028 | Monday | Assumption of Mary15 August 2028 is a Tuesday, transferred to Monday 21 August — the longest wait of the year, six days.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| October 16, 2028 | Monday | Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Day (Día de la Raza)12 October 2028 is a Thursday; the rest is Monday 16 October.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| November 6, 2028 | Monday | All Saints’ Day1 November 2028 is a Wednesday, so the paid rest moves to Monday 6 November.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| November 13, 2028 | Monday | Independence of Cartagena11 November 2028 is a Saturday; the rest is Monday 13 November, keeping a two-day gap that the transfer rule always preserves.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| December 8, 2028 | Friday | Immaculate ConceptionFriday in 2028 — immovable, and it brackets a three-day weekend on its own, opening the Novena season.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| December 25, 2028 | Monday | Christmas DayMonday — the best possible placement for a fixed Christmas: 26 December is a Tuesday too, although Colombian law does not treat it as a holiday.Public holiday | Public holiday |
2028 Colombia calendar
01January
02February
03March
04April
05May
06June
07July
08August
09September
10October
11November
12December
Colombia long weekends in 2028
Epiphany (Día de los Reyes Magos)
3 daysJan 8 – 10
Saint Joseph's Day (Día de San José)
3 daysMar 18 – 20
Holy Week (Semana Santa)
4 daysApr 13 – 16
Maundy Thursday 13 April to Easter Sunday 16 April: the only automatic four-day break of 2028, no leave needed.
Labour Day (Día del Trabajo)
3 daysApr 29 – May 1
Ascension Day (Ascensión del Señor)
3 daysMay 27 – 29
Corpus Christi
3 daysJun 17 – 19
Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón)
3 daysJun 24 – 26
Saint Peter and Saint Paul
3 daysJul 1 – 3
Consecutive July Mondays
3 daysJul 8 – 10
Chiquinquirá on Monday 10 July, one week after Saints Peter and Paul on Monday 3 July — the only back-to-back Monday pair of 2028.
Battle of Boyacá
3 daysAug 5 – 7
Assumption of Mary
3 daysAug 19 – 21
Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Day (Día de la Raza)
3 daysOct 14 – 16
All Saints’ Day
3 daysNov 4 – 6
Independence of Cartagena
3 daysNov 11 – 13
Immaculate Conception
3 daysDec 8 – 10
Christmas Monday
3 daysDec 23 – 25
A Monday Christmas in 2028 produces a Saturday-to-Monday break; the following Tuesday is a normal working day under Colombian law.
The full arithmetic for 2028: festival date, weekday, and the Monday actually taken
Ten festivals are movable (eleven with Chiquinquirá): 6 January (Thu → Mon 10 Jan), 19 March (Sun → Mon 20 Mar), the Ascension (25 May Thu → Mon 29 May), Corpus Christi (15 Jun Thu → Mon 19 Jun), the Sacred Heart (23 Jun Fri → Mon 26 Jun), 29 June (Thu → Mon 3 Jul), 9 July (Sun → Mon 10 Jul), 15 August (Tue → Mon 21 Aug), 12 October (Thu → Mon 16 Oct), 1 November (Wed → Mon 6 Nov) and 11 November (Sat → Mon 13 Nov). Each transfer is “the Monday following that day”, and Sunday counts as a day that must move — which is why San José and Chiquinquirá are taken in March and July respectively.
The eight immovable dates in 2028 land on: 1 January (Sat, lost), 13 April (Thu), 14 April (Fri), 20 July (Thu), 7 August (Mon), 8 December (Fri) and 25 December (Mon) — plus the Sunday Easter that is a rest day anyway. That is a total of one lost day, the friendliest outcome in the 2025–2028 range.
Why fourteen Mondays matter for planning, pricing and payroll
A Monday-heavy year means the long weekends are known years ahead: domestic fares out of Bogotá, cartage into Villa de Leyva or the San Andrés islands, and hotel inventory in the coffee axis all tighten around 10–16 April, 29 April–1 May, 27–29 May and 16–21 August. For payroll the picture is different again: Colombian employers pay the festivo as a paid rest day and apply the Código Sustantivo del Trabajo surcharge when someone works it, and in 2028 there are nineteen such statutory days — fourteen of them predictable Mondays.
This page’s holiday table, calendar grid and the ICS/CSV/PDF exports contain exactly the nineteen days off in the list above — the transferred Monday where Ley 51 says Monday, the fixed date where it says the date. Bank-only closures, school-calendar weeks and departmental fiestas are not included, because they are not days off for the general workforce.
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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 2028 (cross-check of the statutory derivation)Visit sourceNager.Date (open-source public holiday dataset)
- Ley 2578 del 1 de junio de 2026 — art. 6 (Chiquinquirá, 9 July, applied with Ley 51)Visit sourceSecretaría Jurídico Documental de la Presidencia de la República (DAPRE)
Frequently asked questions
How many public holidays are there in Colombia in 2028?
Nineteen national festivos, and all nineteen are separate days off — there is no stacking as happened on 30 June 2025. Seventeen land on a weekday; only 1 January, fixed on a Saturday, yields nothing.
When does Colombia get its longest holiday break in 2028?
Holy Week, Thursday 13 to Sunday 16 April, is the longest automatic run at four days. Everything else the calendar produces is a three-day Saturday-to-Monday break — sixteen of them — unless you add leave: Monday 19 and Friday 23 July bridge the two July festivos into a much longer trip.
What are the official public holidays in Colombia in 2028?
Colombia has 19 official public holidays in 2028: New Year's Day (January 1, 2028), Epiphany (Día de los Reyes Magos) (January 10, 2028), Saint Joseph's Day (Día de San José) (March 20, 2028), Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo) (April 13, 2028), Good Friday (April 14, 2028), Labour Day (Día del Trabajo) (May 1, 2028), Ascension Day (Ascensión del Señor) (May 29, 2028), Corpus Christi (June 19, 2028), Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón) (June 26, 2028), Saint Peter and Saint Paul (July 3, 2028), Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá (July 10, 2028), Declaration of Independence (Grito de Independencia) (July 20, 2028), Battle of Boyacá (August 7, 2028), Assumption of Mary (August 21, 2028), Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Day (Día de la Raza) (October 16, 2028), All Saints’ Day (November 6, 2028), Independence of Cartagena (November 13, 2028), Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2028), Christmas Day (December 25, 2028).
Is 9 July a holiday in Colombia in 2028, or 10 July?
The feast is 9 July and it falls on a Sunday in 2028; Ley 51 sends a Sunday festival to the next Monday, so the day off — and the row in our exports — is Monday 10 July. Same mechanism, different weekday every year: 13 July in 2026, 12 July in 2027.
Why is 2028 better for Colombian workers than 2027?
Because the eight immovable dates fall better. In 2028 only New Year’s Day is wasted on a Saturday, so 18 of 19 festivos give a weekday off. In 2027 three of them — Labour Day, Boyacá and Christmas — land on Saturdays, reducing the usable count to 16. Nothing about the law differs; it is pure weekday alignment.
Does Colombia ever schedule a Saturday to compensate a long weekend?
Never. The Monday transfer in Ley 51 costs no extra working day: the Monday simply substitutes the ordinary Sunday rest, so the annual total is unchanged. This is the opposite of China’s 调休 system, where a weekend is converted into a working day to pay for an extended holiday.
Are the 2028 dates confirmed?
Yes, and they will not move. Colombia does not publish an annual holiday decree to approve — the list is the statute itself (Ley 51 de 1983, plus Ley 2578 de 2026) combined with the Gregorian Easter computus, so it can be computed indefinitely. The only way 2028 changes is if Congress legislates a new festivo or removes one.
