Greece Public Holidays 2027
Greece has the same thirteen statutory dates in 2027, and 2027 is the meanest of the four years shown here: five of them land on a Saturday or Sunday and Greek law returns nothing for it. Both Christmas days sit inside one weekend (Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 December), the Dormition is a Sunday, Pascha is a Sunday by definition, and Labour Day is a Saturday. Eight days behave like real time off, and the year’s only four-day break is the Orthodox one — Good Friday April 30 to Easter Monday May 3, with 1 May falling on Great Saturday in between.
At a glance
Greece has 13 official public holidays (13 days off) in 2027 and 4 long weekends; the longest break is Pascha (Apr 30 – May 3, 4 days).
| Public holidays | 13 |
|---|---|
| Total days off | 13 |
| Longest break | Pascha · 4 days (Apr 30 – May 3) |
| Long weekends | 4 |
Official public holidays
New Year's Day (Protochronia) (January 1, 2027), Epiphany (Theofaneia) (January 6, 2027), Clean Monday (Kathara Deftera) (March 15, 2027), Annunciation & Independence Day (25 Martiou) (March 25, 2027), Holy and Great Friday (Megali Paraskevi) (April 30, 2027), Labour Day (Ergatiki Protomagia) (May 1, 2027), Pascha — Orthodox Easter Sunday (May 2, 2027), Monday of the Orthodox Pascha (Deutera tou Pascha) (May 3, 2027), Whit Monday (Agia Pnevmata) (June 21, 2027), Dormition of the Virgin (Kimisi) (August 15, 2027), Ochi Day (28i Oktovriou) (October 28, 2027), Christmas Day (Christougenna) (December 25, 2027), Second Day of Christmas (Synaxi tis Theotokou) (December 26, 2027)
Days off recognised nationwide
13
Landing Monday–Friday
8 of 13
Lost to a weekend, no transfer
5 (May 1, May 2, Aug 15, Dec 25–26)
Longest automatic break
4 days, Apr 30 – May 3
Greece public holiday list
| Date | Day | Holiday | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2027 | Friday | New Year's Day (Protochronia)Friday — also the feast of Saint Basil, whose name the vasilopita carries: a coin is baked into the New Year’s cake and the slice it hides sets the house’s luck. A Friday start is the friendliest kind, since Saturday and Sunday follow without asking anything of an employer.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| January 6, 2027 | Wednesday | Epiphany (Theofaneia)Wednesday — the blessing of the waters: a cross is thrown into the sea and swimmers go after it. A lone Wednesday in the first week of January; it cuts the week but reaches neither weekend.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| March 15, 2027 | Monday | Clean Monday (Kathara Deftera)Monday — Pascha minus 48 days, so a late one this year: Great Lent opens on March 15 and the Apokries carnival ends with kites on the hills and a table of lagana, halva and taramasalata, with no meat and no dairy. A general day of rest rather than one of the Article 60 compulsory closure dates, so private-sector pay follows the collective agreement.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| March 25, 2027 | Thursday | Annunciation & Independence Day (25 Martiou)Thursday — one fixed date, two commemorations: the Annunciation and the raising of the revolutionary flag at Agia Lavra on 25 March 1821. School and military parades across the country. It is the only Thursday Annunciation of the four years on this page, and because it sits inside Great Lent (which began March 15) the table breaks for fish.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| April 30, 2027 | Friday | Holy and Great Friday (Megali Paraskevi)Friday — the most solemn day of the Greek year: the Epitaphios, the bier of Christ, is carried through the streets at night and candles are handed out. Like Clean Monday it is a general day of rest rather than an Article 60 closure date, yet commerce stops and retail reopens only after midday. It opens 2027’s four-day break.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 1, 2027 | Saturday | Labour Day (Ergatiki Protomagia)Saturday — and the Great Saturday of the Orthodox Church, the day between the Epitaphios and the Resurrection service, so in 2027 the workers’ holiday and the quietest day of the Christian year are the same date. Article 14 of Law 4468/2017 made 1 May a compulsory closure day for all businesses and lets the Labour Minister move it when it coincides with a Sunday, a day of Holy Week or Easter Monday — a condition 2027 does meet; see the section below on what that transfer does and does not change.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 2, 2027 | Sunday | Pascha — Orthodox Easter SundaySunday — Pascha 2027 is May 2, five weeks after Gregorian Easter (March 28), the widest gap of the four years here: the Julian paschalion and the Gregorian one simply disagree. The Anastasis service ends in the last minute of Holy Saturday, Mayiritsa soup and spit-roasted lamb follow. As a Sunday it is already the weekly rest day and adds nothing.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| May 3, 2027 | Monday | Monday of the Orthodox Pascha (Deutera tou Pascha)Monday — the second day of Pascha: leftover lamb, village panigiria and open-air tables all afternoon, public services shut. One of the nine dates on which all businesses must close, and the day that ends 2027’s only four-day break.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| June 21, 2027 | Monday | Whit Monday (Agia Pnevmata)Monday — Pascha plus 50 days, the latest Whit Monday of the four years on this page, a full twenty days later than 2026’s June 1. Pentecost itself is Sunday June 20. Greeks take the traditional outing to the mountains or a seaside village; it is a general day of rest, not an Article 60 closure date.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| August 15, 2027 | Sunday | Dormition of the Virgin (Kimisi)Sunday — the biggest summer feast lands on the weekly rest day, so a Monday-to-Friday worker gets nothing out of it while the Church gets both the liturgy and the Sunday. Pilgrims still converge on Tinos and villages still hold their panigiri, and it remains one of the nine compulsory closure dates for businesses.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| October 28, 2027 | Thursday | Ochi Day (28i Oktovriou)Thursday — Metaxas’s “Όχι!” to the Italian ultimatum of 28 October 1940, with the parade in Thessaloniki and school celebrations everywhere. A Thursday is a compulsory closure day standing on its own: 29 October is a working Friday, so the break does not reach the weekend.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| December 25, 2027 | Saturday | Christmas Day (Christougenna)Saturday — Christmas 2027 opens on a weekend and stays there. Greece keeps the Gregorian calendar for fixed feasts, which the Greek state adopted in 1923, so Athens and Rome celebrate on the same December date; the Christopsomo bread, the model ship and the Kallantzeri singers all arrive, but for a Monday-to-Friday worker the day is worth nothing extra.Public holiday | Public holiday |
| December 26, 2027 | Sunday | Second Day of Christmas (Synaxi tis Theotokou)Sunday — the Synaxis of the Theotokos follows Christmas Day into the same weekend, so 2027’s Christmas season yields no weekday off at all. Both days are still compulsory closure dates — Article 42 of Law 4554/2018 wrote 26 December into the private-sector list — which in practice means retail stays shut over the weekend itself.Public holiday | Public holiday |
2027 Greece calendar
01January
02February
03March
04April
05May
06June
07July
08August
09September
10October
11November
12December
Greece long weekends in 2027
New Year
3 daysJan 1 – 3
New Year’s Day on Friday with the weekend behind it: three days to open 2027, the vasilopita cut on the Friday and the luck it promises carried into January.
Clean Monday
3 daysMar 13 – 15
Saturday and Sunday, then Clean Monday on March 15 — kites on the hills, lagana and taramasalata on the picnic cloth, the first break of the year that needs no leave.
Pascha
4 daysApr 30 – May 3
Good Friday April 30 to Easter Monday May 3 — four days with nothing asked of an employer, and 2027’s only break of that length. Labour Day sits inside it as Great Saturday. Gregorian Easter was March 28, so if you coordinate with London or Berlin the weeks are a month apart.
Whit Monday
3 daysJun 19 – 21
The weekend plus Whit Monday on June 21 — the traditional outing day, a late one this year, and the last three-day break before the August peak.
What 2027 is worth, day by day
Thirteen statutory dates, eight usable ones. Five land on a weekend and Greek law has no substitute-day rule, so they are simply gone: Labour Day (Saturday May 1), Pascha (Sunday May 2), the Dormition (Sunday August 15) and both Christmas days (Saturday December 25 and Sunday December 26). Eight days do behave like time off — 1 January (Fri), 6 January (Wed), Clean Monday, 25 March (Thu), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday and 28 October (Thu) — and the Christmas season contributes nothing at all, because both its dates are inside the same weekend. That makes 2027 the weakest of the four years on this page: 2026 gives ten usable days, 2025 twelve and 2028 nine.
There is also no make-up work in the other direction: Greece has nothing like the Asian practice of converting a Saturday into a working day to pay for a long break, so this page publishes an empty makeupWorkdays array rather than omitting the field. What the calendar does hand over without asking for leave is four windows — three three-day breaks (New Year, Clean Monday, Whit Monday) and one four-day break, Pascha from Good Friday April 30 to Easter Monday May 3. Everything longer than that in a Greek year has to be bought with annual leave.
1 May 2027 is Great Saturday: what the transfer rule does, and does not, do
Pascha 2027 is Sunday May 2, which makes Saturday May 1 the Great Saturday of the Orthodox Church — and puts the workers’ holiday squarely inside Holy Week. That matters, because Article 14 of Law 4468/2017 is the one place Greek labour law still allows a move. The Hellenic Labour Inspectorate states the rule plainly: when a holiday coincides with a Sunday no question of transferring it arises, since the old provisions were repealed (Article 7 of Law 1400/1983), and the sole exception is 1 May, where a decision of the Labour Minister transfers the holiday to another working day if it falls on a Sunday, on a day of Holy Week or on Easter Monday.
Read carefully, though, the rule is a labour-law mechanism, not a new feast on the national calendar. It is the same Article 14 that made 1 May a compulsory closure day for private businesses, and it moves that obligation to “another working day” for the employees concerned; before 2017 the same result was reached by an annual ministerial decision designating the private-sector holiday. The statutory date of 1 May does not change, the Orthodox calendar does not gain a fourteenth holiday, and the public service, schools and banks keep their schedule regardless. No such decision for 2027 had been published when this page was last updated on 22 September 2026, and none of the transfer day’s effects belong in the table above: the ICS, CSV and PDF files behind the download buttons carry exactly the thirteen statutory dates. If a decision is issued, it will be a compensatory day off for private-sector employees, visible in the Government Gazette, and it is worth watching there rather than editing this calendar on speculation.
Pascha 2027: five weeks behind the West
Greece lives on a hybrid calendar. Fixed feasts — Christmas on December 25, the Epiphany on January 6, the Dormition on August 15 — follow the Gregorian calendar the Greek state adopted in 1923, so Athens, London and Berlin agree on those dates. Pascha does not: the Orthodox churches compute it from the Julian paschalion, tied to the Julian date of the vernal equinox (currently 13 April) and to their own paschal full moon, and they keep their own answer even when it matches the Gregorian one. In 2027 the two disagree as widely as they ever do — Gregorian Easter March 28, Orthodox Pascha May 2, thirty-five days apart, the largest gap of the four years on this page.
The practical rule: never copy an Easter-derived date from one country to another. Greece’s four movable holidays are Clean Monday (Pascha minus 48), Good Friday (minus 2), Pascha itself and Whit Monday (plus 50), and the offsets are what makes the arithmetic checkable — Clean Monday and Whit Monday must be Mondays, Good Friday must be a Friday. For 2027 that yields March 15, April 30, May 2 and May 3, plus the Easter Monday that is Pascha plus one, and every one of them is confirmed against two independent sources. The remaining nine dates are fixed on the calendar and need no computation at all, which is why this page and the export files behind its download buttons can carry 2027 as confirmed rather than provisional.
Download & subscribe
The CSV opens directly in Excel and Google Sheets.
Official sources & data
- Επίσημες Αργίες – Ημιαργίες: παρ. 11 του άρθρου 1 της από 29/12/1980 Πράξης Νομοθετικού Περιεχομένου, κυρωθείσα με το άρθρο πρώτο του ν. 1157/1981 (ΦΕΚ Α΄ 126/12.5.1981) — εθνικές εορτές, κινητές εορτές εκ Πάσχα και ΚυριακαίVisit sourceΑποκεντρωμένη Διοίκηση Κρήτης — Decentralized Administration of Crete, Ministry of Interior, Hellenic Republic
- Ημέρες Αργίας — άρθρο 60 Ν. 4808/2021 και η ρήτρα μετάθεσης της 1ης Μαΐου: «Εξαίρεση αποτελεί η αργία της 1ης Μαΐου, όπου με απόφαση του Υπουργού Εργασίας μετατίθεται σε άλλη εργάσιμη ημέρα, εφόσον συμπίπτει με Κυριακή, με ημέρα της Μεγάλης Εβδομάδας ή με τη Δευτέρα του Πάσχα (αρθ. 14, Ν.4468/2017)» (read live from hli.gov.gr on 22 September 2026)Visit sourceΗΕΠ – ΣΕΠΕ / Hellenic Labour Inspectorate, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Hellenic Republic
- Nager.Date Public Holidays API — Greece 2027 (independent cross-check of all thirteen dates, retrieved 22 September 2026)Visit sourceNager.Date (open-source holiday data project) — non-governmental
- Date of Easter — Meeus’s Julian algorithm worked example, giving the Gregorian calendar equivalent of Orthodox Pascha as 2 May 2027 (second independent cross-check of the Paschal date)Visit sourceWikipedia (community encyclopedia) — non-governmental
Frequently asked questions
How many public holidays does Greece have in 2027?
Thirteen nationwide days off — the same thirteen every year, since the list is fixed by standing law rather than published annually. But 2027 is the weakest of the four years on this page: five of the thirteen land on a Saturday or Sunday and Greek law gives nothing back, so only eight behave like real time off. Nine of the thirteen are compulsory closure days for all businesses; the other four are general holidays whose private-sector pay treatment follows collective agreements.
What is the longest holiday break in Greece in 2027?
The longest break in Greece is Pascha (Apr 30 – May 3, 4 days).
What are the official public holidays in Greece in 2027?
Greece has 13 official public holidays in 2027: New Year's Day (Protochronia) (January 1, 2027), Epiphany (Theofaneia) (January 6, 2027), Clean Monday (Kathara Deftera) (March 15, 2027), Annunciation & Independence Day (25 Martiou) (March 25, 2027), Holy and Great Friday (Megali Paraskevi) (April 30, 2027), Labour Day (Ergatiki Protomagia) (May 1, 2027), Pascha — Orthodox Easter Sunday (May 2, 2027), Monday of the Orthodox Pascha (Deutera tou Pascha) (May 3, 2027), Whit Monday (Agia Pnevmata) (June 21, 2027), Dormition of the Virgin (Kimisi) (August 15, 2027), Ochi Day (28i Oktovriou) (October 28, 2027), Christmas Day (Christougenna) (December 25, 2027), Second Day of Christmas (Synaxi tis Theotokou) (December 26, 2027).
When is Orthodox Easter 2027, and why is it so far from the Western date?
Sunday May 2, 2027 — thirty-five days after Gregorian Easter, which falls on March 28. The Orthodox churches compute Pascha from the Julian paschalion, so the two systems routinely diverge and 2027 is the extreme year in this window. The derived Greek dates follow: Good Friday April 30, Easter Monday May 3, Clean Monday March 15 and Whit Monday June 21. Western organisations that plan around “Easter Monday” should not assume any of them.
Why does 1 May 2027 fall in Holy Week, and will the Greek government move it?
Because Pascha is May 2, the Saturday before it is Great Saturday: 1 May 2027 is a day of Holy Week, which is one of the three triggers written into Article 14 of Law 4468/2017. That article lets the Labour Minister transfer the 1 May holiday to another working day by decision; it does not create a new feast. No such decision for 2027 had been published when this page was last updated (22 September 2026), and a decision would concern private-sector employees’ compulsory closure obligation, not the national calendar or the public service. This page therefore keeps exactly thirteen rows: 1 May on its statutory date and no speculative extra day.
Does Greece give a substitute day when a holiday falls on a Sunday or Saturday?
No. The transfer provisions that used to allow one were repealed (Article 7 of Law 1400/1983), and the Hellenic Labour Inspectorate states explicitly that a holiday coinciding with a Sunday raises no question of moving it. The single surviving exception is 1 May under Article 14 of Law 4468/2017. For 2027 that rule costs real days: Labour Day (Sat), Pascha (Sun), the Dormition (Sun) and both Christmas days (Sat and Sun) produce no weekday off — which is why Greece lists thirteen holidays but 2027 gives only eight.
Which Greek holidays in 2027 force businesses to close?
Nine of the thirteen: 1 and 6 January, 25 March, Easter Monday (May 3), 1 May, 15 August, 28 October, and 25 and 26 December. That is the compulsory-closure list gathered into Article 60 of Law 4808/2021, with 1 May added by Article 14 of Law 4468/2017 and 26 December by Article 42 of Law 4554/2018. The other four — Clean Monday, Good Friday, Pascha Sunday and Whit Monday — are general days of rest in the 1980 framework: the state, banks and schools stop and in practice retail does too, but a private employee’s pay runs through the applicable collective agreement rather than Article 60.
What should a visitor plan around in Greece for 2027?
The April 30 – May 3 block above everything else. Good Friday, Great Saturday, Pascha and Easter Monday in one run means ferries, island rooms and archaeological sites all move at once, and the big sites close on Great Friday and Easter Monday in line with the state calendar. The rest of the year is gentler on travellers: 15 August is a Sunday, so the classic island crush shifts onto Saturday the 14th, and Christmas sits inside a weekend, so mainland offices are open as usual on Friday the 24th and Monday the 27th. Book the Easter block early; treat the Dormition weekend as the second crunch.
