Ten of the twelve days come from § 2 of the Holiday Act of 24 February 1995 (lov 24. februar 1995 nr. 12): New Year’s Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the first and second days of Easter, Ascension Day, the first and second days of Pentecost, and the first and second days of Christmas. Letter a) of the same paragraph adds ordinary Sundays, which is why the Act never needs to name a Sunday separately. The remaining two days, 1. mai and 17. mai, are not in that Act at all — they come from Lov om 1 og 17 mai som høgtidsdager of 26 April 1947. The movable dates are not negotiated annually either: § 2 defines Easter Sunday in the statute itself as the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March, and the other feasts are counted from it (Easter −3, −2, +1, +39, +49, +50). That is why this page can publish 2025 through 2028 as confirmed.

There is no transfer mechanism anywhere in the Act: a day is defined by its calendar date or by its distance from Easter, and that is the end of it. So when a red day lands on a Saturday it is simply lost — in 2025 that is Constitution Day, Saturday May 17 — and when it lands on a Sunday it overlaps a rest day you already had, which is what happens to Easter Sunday and Pentecost. Nine of the twelve days still fall Monday to Friday in 2025, a good year by Norwegian standards; 2027, by contrast, yields only six.

The 1947 Act makes both dates høgtidsdager that “shall be equated with Sundays” — but expressly not for the rules on church services or for helligdagsfred, the peace-of-holiday provisions of §§ 3–4. That exception is what makes 17. mai look impossible from abroad: § 4 bans public events, performances and sports contests between 06:00 and 13:00 on a helligdag, yet item 4 of its exception list names arrangements on 1. and 17. mai. That is the legal basis on which school parades, brass bands and a million flags fill the streets from early morning. Retail is not so lucky: § 1 of the 1947 Act applies §§ 5 and 6 of the 1995 Act to those two days correspondingly, so fixed outlets selling goods to consumers must stay closed — as they must on every helligdag, ordinary Sundays included.

A second quirk bites planners: § 2 of the 1947 Act says the day before 1. mai and the day before 17. mai are ordinary working days, not “the day before a Sunday”, unless that eve itself falls on a Saturday, on the day before Ascension Day, or on a Sunday or other holy day. In 2025 that leaves April 30 (Wednesday) and May 16 (Friday) as normal working days — no statutory shortened hours before the national day, whatever the office feels like.

Julaften is the most common misconception about this calendar. December 24 is not listed in § 2, so it is not a helligdag and the Holiday Act gives you no right to be off. What the law does is treat the afternoon as closed: § 3 extends helligdagsfred to påskeaften, pinseaften and julaften from 16:00, and § 5 requires fixed outlets selling to consumers to shut at 16:00 on those three eves. The day off itself comes from employment contracts, collective agreements and custom — Norwegians call it allmennfri, free for everyone — so a calendar that labels December 24 a public holiday is wrong in the other direction. This file keeps it out of the table and out of the ICS, CSV and PDF downloads, which state only what the law closes.

In 2025 the practical shape of Christmas is: December 24 (Wednesday, almost everyone off) → December 25 (Thursday, statutory) → December 26 (Friday, statutory) → the weekend. Two statutory days plus a Wednesday that behaves like one. Book flights before the rush: the last Friday before Christmas and the day after the Second Day are the heavy travel days of the Norwegian year.