Eleven dates appear on the Dutch official holiday list, and on most of them your employer decides whether you work.
There is no statutory right to paid leave on any public holiday in the Netherlands, which is the single fact that makes this calendar different from the one you are used to.
Below are every 2026 and 2027 date, which of them close the city, and where the bridge days fall.
Dutch Public Holidays In 2026
Nieuwjaarsdag, New Year’s Day, fell on Thursday 1 January.
Goede Vrijdag, Good Friday, was Friday 3 April, with Eerste and Tweede Paasdag, Easter Sunday and Monday, on 5 and 6 April.
Koningsdag, King’s Day, was Monday 27 April.
Hemelvaartsdag, Ascension Day, fell on Thursday 14 May, and Eerste and Tweede Pinksterdag, Whit Sunday and Monday, on 24 and 25 May.
Eerste Kerstdag and Tweede Kerstdag, Christmas Day and the day after, are Friday 25 and Saturday 26 December, and they are the only public holidays left in 2026.
Bevrijdingsdag, Liberation Day, on 5 May, is a full public holiday only once every five years; 2025 was one of those years and the next is 2030, so in 2026 it was a working day for most people.
Dutch Public Holidays In 2027
Nieuwjaarsdag is Friday 1 January.
Easter comes early: Goede Vrijdag on Friday 26 March, with Eerste and Tweede Paasdag on Sunday 28 and Monday 29 March.
Koningsdag is Tuesday 27 April, and the date only moves when 27 April falls on a Sunday, in which case it is celebrated on the 26th.
Hemelvaartsdag is Thursday 6 May, and Eerste and Tweede Pinksterdag are Sunday 16 and Monday 17 May.
Eerste Kerstdag and Tweede Kerstdag fall on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 December, which means both land on the weekend and the working year is not interrupted at all.
Bevrijdingsdag on Wednesday 5 May is again a normal working day for most employees.
Which Holidays Actually Mean A Day Off
Dutch law obliges no employer to give paid leave on a public holiday, and the answer for you is written in your contract or in the collective labour agreement, the CAO, that covers your sector.
Most CAOs grant the main holidays, but two are frequently excluded and worth checking before you book anything.
Goede Vrijdag is on the official list and is nonetheless a working day for a large share of the workforce, with some government bodies and a minority of sectors closing.
Bevrijdingsdag outside the five-year cycle is the other one, occasionally granted as a half day and more often not granted at all.
For a visitor the practical consequence is simple: on Good Friday and on an ordinary Liberation Day, Amsterdam runs a normal weekday, with shops open, trams running and museums keeping their usual hours.
What Each Holiday Is Actually Like In Amsterdam
Koningsdag is the one that changes the city rather than pausing it, with the whole centre in orange, boats filling the canals and a city-wide street market on which anyone may sell anything without a permit.
Shops in the centre close, public transport routes are cut or suspended across the inner ring, and moving through the middle of town between midday and five is close to impossible.
Tweede Paasdag and Tweede Pinksterdag are the opposite in character, quiet Mondays that most people spend with family or on a day out.
Supermarkets in the centre usually open on reduced hours and the major museums stay open, but restaurants fill early, so book.
Hemelvaartsdag always falls on a Thursday and a large share of the country takes the Friday too, which fills the parks and the brunch places with Dutch visitors rather than foreign ones.
Tweede Kerstdag is the slowest day of the year in the city, with families at home and a handful of shops open for the sales.
In both 2026 and 2027 the Christmas pair falls at the weekend, so neither year produces the long Christmas shutdown that a midweek date creates.
The Dutch Names, And Why They Look Odd
Multi-day holidays are numbered rather than named, using eerste for the first day and tweede for the second.
So Eerste Paasdag is Easter Sunday and Tweede Paasdag is Easter Monday, and the same pattern gives you Eerste and Tweede Pinksterdag and Eerste and Tweede Kerstdag.
Pinksteren is Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, and it is a two-day holiday here in a way it is not in most English-speaking countries.
Tweede Kerstdag on 26 December is the equivalent of Boxing Day, and Dutch shops treat it as a second Christmas Day rather than a shopping day.
Hemelvaartsdag is Ascension, Bevrijdingsdag is Liberation Day marking the end of the German occupation in 1945, and Dodenherdenking on the evening of 4 May is the national remembrance, with two minutes’ silence at eight o’clock observed across the country.
Dodenherdenking is not a public holiday, but the silence is genuinely total, including on public transport.
Bridge Days Worth Booking
The Dutch call them brugdagen, the working day that sits between a holiday and a weekend, and taking one converts a single day of leave into a four-day break.
For the rest of 2026 there is nothing to bridge, since Christmas Day is a Friday and the following day a Saturday.
In 2027 the first is Monday 29 March, which sits between the Easter weekend and the working week, giving Friday to Monday off for anyone whose employer observes Good Friday.
The strongest single day in 2027 is Monday 26 April, taken in front of Koningsdag on the Tuesday, which produces four consecutive days off for one day of leave.
Friday 7 May does the same job after Ascension Day on Thursday 6 May, and Tuesday 18 May extends the Whitsun weekend to four days.
Taken together, three days of leave in the spring of 2027 produce twelve days away from work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the official public holidays in the Netherlands in 2026?
New Year’s Day on 1 January, Good Friday on 3 April, Easter Sunday and Monday on 5 and 6 April, King’s Day on 27 April, Ascension Day on 14 May, Whit Sunday and Monday on 24 and 25 May, and Christmas Day and the day after on 25 and 26 December.
Liberation Day on 5 May is on the list but is not a day off in 2026.
What are the dates for 2027?
New Year’s Day on Friday 1 January, Good Friday on 26 March, Easter Sunday and Monday on 28 and 29 March, King’s Day on Tuesday 27 April, Ascension Day on Thursday 6 May, Whit Sunday and Monday on 16 and 17 May, and Christmas on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 December.
Easter is unusually early in 2027, which pulls Ascension and Whitsun forward with it.
Is Liberation Day a day off?
Only in years divisible by five, so 2025 was a holiday and 2030 will be the next one.
In between it is a normal working day for most, though a minority of CAOs grant a half or full day.
Am I entitled to paid leave on a public holiday?
Not by law, since Dutch legislation leaves the question entirely to the employment contract and the applicable CAO.
Check the CAO for your sector rather than assuming, particularly around Good Friday.
Will things be closed when I visit?
King’s Day closes shops across the centre and cuts public transport; Christmas Day and the day after close most retail; Easter Monday and Whit Monday leave museums open and supermarkets on shorter hours.
Good Friday and an ordinary Liberation Day change nothing at all.
How do I get the most days off for the fewest days of leave?
Take the Monday before King’s Day 2027 and the Friday after Ascension Day 2027, which turn two days of leave into eight days away.
Add the Tuesday after Whit Monday and the spring is effectively cleared.
