Public holidays in Germany

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By law, "the Sundays and the public holidays remain protected as days of rest from work and of spiritual elevation" (Art. 139 WRV, part of the German constitution via Art. 140 GG). Thus all Sundays are, in a manner, public holidays – but usually not understood by the term "holiday" (except for, normally, Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday).

Public holidays apart from the Sundays (there must be some of them constitutionally) can be declared by law either by the Federation or by the Länder for their respective jurisdictions. At present the only federal holiday is German Unity Day (Unity Treaty, Art. 2 sect. 2); all the other holidays, even those celebrated all over Germany, are prescribed by state legislation.

## List by state

[edit]

Name of holiday  | Date  | Federal state

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English  | German  |  BW |  BY |  BE |  BB |  HB |  HH |  HE |  MV |  NI |  NW |  RP |  SL |  SN |  ST |  SH |  TH
New Year's Day | Neujahrstag | 1 January  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
Epiphany | Heilige Drei Könige | 6 January  | ✔ | ✔ |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ✔ |  |
International Women's Day[1] | Internationaler Frauentag | 8 March  |  |  | ✔ |  |  |  |  | ✔ |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Good Friday | Karfreitag | Easter Sunday – 2d  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
Easter Monday | Ostermontag | Easter Sunday \+ 1d  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
Labour Day | Tag der Arbeit | 1 May  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
Ascension Day | Christi Himmelfahrt | Easter Sunday \+ 39d  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
Whit Monday | Pfingstmontag[2] | Easter Sunday \+ 50d  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
Corpus Christi | Fronleichnam | Easter Sunday \+ 60d  | ✔ | ✔ |  |  |  |  | ✔ |  |  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | [a] |  |  | [b]
Augsburg High Peace Festival [de] | Augsburger Hohes Friedensfest | 8 August  |  | [c] |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Assumption Day | Mariä Himmelfahrt | 15 August  |  | ✔[d][e] |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ✔ |  |  |  |
World Children's Day | Weltkindertag | 20 September  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ✔[f][3]
German Unity Day | Tag der Deutschen Einheit | 3 October  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
Reformation Day[g] | Reformationstag | 31 October  |  |  |  | ✔ | ✔[h][4] | ✔[h][5] |  | ✔ | ✔[h][6] |  |  |  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔[h][7] | ✔
All Saints' Day | Allerheiligen | 1 November  | ✔ | ✔ |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |  |  |  |
Repentance and Prayer Day[i] | Buß- und Bettag | Wednesday before Totensonntag
i.e. Advent Sunday − 11d  |  | [e] |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ✔ |  |  |
Christmas Day | Weihnachtstag | 25 December  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
Second Day of Christmas | Zweiter Weihnachtsfeiertag | 26 December  | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔
Total number of holidays per state[j] | 12 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 11[f]

### Notes

[edit]

✔ – Public holiday is celebrated in that state.

1. ^ Public holiday only in few Sorbian communities.
2. ^ Public holiday only in the Catholic district of Eichsfeld.
3. ^ Public holiday only in the city of Augsburg.
4. ^ Public holiday only in approx. 1700 communities with predominantly Catholic population and in the cities of Augsburg and Munich.
5. ^ a b Schools are closed all over the state on that day.
6. ^ a b From 2019 onwards.
7. ^ One-time public holiday in all states, including those not normally observing Reformation Day, to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.
8. ^ a b c d Four states adopted the Reformation Day as permanent holiday starting in 2018 (Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein (see table for references)).
9. ^ Public holiday in all states until 1994. The holiday was discontinued with introduction of nursing care insurance. Saxony is the only state where employers do not have to pay for nursing care insurance (paid by employees in that state) and where the holiday is still kept.
10. ^ For states where some holidays are not observed uniformly all over the state, such holidays are included in the state's total number of holidays if their celebration is predominant and widespread in that state:
* Bavaria: with Assumption Day, without Peace Festival.
* Saxony and Thuringia: without Corpus Christi.

In addition, the state of Brandenburg formally declared Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday as public holidays. As these are Sundays anyway, they have been left out by the other states, nor counted in the table above (the state of Hesse even declared all Sundays public holidays).

## Quiet days

[edit]

A couple of days are designated as stille Tage ("quiet days") by state legislation, which regularly means that public dancing or sport events, music at inns (if live or if not much quieter than usual) etc. are prohibited.

Some public holidays or commemorations are quiet days:

* Ash Wednesday (in Bavaria)
* Holy Thursday (in some states; in some of them beginning in the evening)
* Good Friday
* Holy Saturday (in some states)
* Buß- und Bettag (where it is a public holiday and in a couple of other states)
* All Saints' Day (where it is a public holiday)
* All Souls' Day (in Lower Saxony and the Saarland)
* Volkstrauertag
* Totensonntag (the last Sunday of the Protestant liturgical year)
* Christmas Eve (beginning in the afternoon, in some states)

The status of quiet days is also given to festivities joyous in nature: in Hesse, the highest Christian holidays are half-quiet days (until midday) and in Rhineland-Palatinate, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day are two-thirds-quiet days (until 4 pm). For details see the German article on the Tanzverbot ("dancing ban").

## Flag days

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A yet third category that may sometimes be called "holidays" in a sense are the "flag days" (Beflaggungstage). Only the very highest institutions and the military use the national flags at every day, so the directives when flags are to be displayed mark the days in question as special.

Flags are to be shown by Federal Decree on

* Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January, half-mast)
* Labour Day (1 May)
* Europe Day (9 May)
* Constitution Day (23 May)
* Popular Uprising Day (17 June) This day was public holiday under the title of "German Unity Day" from 1954 until 1990 when that unity actually was achieved.
* Resistance Day (20 July)
* German Unity Day (3 October)
* Memorial Day (half-mast) (two Sundays before the first Sunday of Advent)
* Election Day (Bundestag, European Parliament)

and by state decrees on other days, such as election days for state parliaments, state constitution days, anniversary of the election of the Federal President (in Berlin) and so forth.

Frequently flags are ordered ad hoc to be shown at half-mast in cases of national mourning.

## Unofficial holidays

[edit]

Either Carnival Monday ("Rosenmontag") or Shrove Tuesday is a de facto holiday in some towns and cities in Catholic western and southern Germany which have a strong Carnival tradition.

Also, Christmas Eve is developing into a semi-holiday: from mid-afternoon it is practically treated as a holiday, and while shops still open in the morning, for other businesses (apart from those that work even on holidays) this is becoming increasingly unusual; schools are closed in any case.[citation needed]

## Customs about holidays

[edit]

Ascension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt) and Corpus Christi (Fronleichnam) are both always on Thursdays. By taking only one day's leave, employees can have a four-day weekend.

The Three Kings Day, better known as Epiphany, is 6 January, the day after the 12 days of Christmas. In parts of Germany, it has its own local customs.

## Public holidays in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

[edit]

Holiday | Local name | Date | Remarks

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|
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New Year | Neujahr | 1 January |
Good Friday | Karfreitag | Easter Sunday – 2d |
Easter Monday | Ostermontag | Easter Sunday + 1d | until 1967 and in 1990
Labour Day | Internationaler Kampf- und Feiertag
der Werktätigen für Frieden und Sozialismus | 1 May |
Liberation Day | Tag der Befreiung | 8 May | until 1967 and in 1985
Victory Day | Tag des Sieges | 9 May | only in 1975
Ascension Day | Christi Himmelfahrt | Easter Sunday + 39d | until 1967 and in 1990
Whit Monday | Pfingstmontag | Easter Sunday + 50d |
Day of the Republic | Tag der Republik | 7 October |
Reformation Day | Reformationstag | 31 October | until 1966
Day of Repentance and Prayer | Buß- und Bettag | Wed. before 23 November | until 1966
Christmas Day | 1\. Weihnachtsfeiertag | 25 December |
St Stephen's Day / Boxing Day | 2\. Weihnachtsfeiertag | 26 December |

## See also

[edit]

* Holidays in Nazi Germany

## References

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1. ^ "Frauentag wird gesetzlicher Feiertag". berlin.de (in German). 11 February 2019. Archived from the original on 18 June 2021. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
2. ^ "Pfingstmontag: Feiertag in Deutschland".
3. ^ "Thüringen bekommt neuen Feiertag". 28 February 2019.
4. ^ Weser-Kurier. "Reformationstag wird Feiertag in Bremen" (in German). Retrieved 20 June 2018.
5. ^ NDR (28 February 2018). "Hamburg hat einen neuen Feiertag" (in German). Archived from the original on 3 February 2019.
6. ^ NDR (19 June 2018). "Beschlossen: Reformationstag wird neuer Feiertag" (in German). Archived from the original on 9 July 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
7. ^ "Schleswig-Holstein hat einen neuen Feiertag" (in German). NDR. 22 February 2018. Archived from the original on 3 February 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2018.

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Public holidays in Europe

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