Public holidays in Germany

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

Name of holiday		Date	Federal state
English	German		Template:Flagicon BW	Template:Flagicon BY	Template:Flagicon BE	Template:Flagicon BB	Template:Flagicon HB	Template:Flagicon HH	Template:Flagicon HE	Template:Flagicon MV	Template:Flagicon NI	Template:Flagicon NW	Template:Flagicon RP	Template:Flagicon SL	Template:Flagicon SN	Template:Flagicon ST	Template:Flagicon SH	Template:Flagicon TH
New Year's Day	Neujahrstag	1 January	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Epiphany	Heilige Drei Könige	6 January	✔	✔												✔
International Women's Day<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	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 (Thu)	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Whit Monday	Pfingstmontag<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Easter Sunday + 50d	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Corpus Christi	Fronleichnam	Easter Sunday + 60d (Thu)	✔	✔					✔			✔	✔	✔	Template:Efn			Template:Efn
Augsburg Peace Festival	Augsburger Hohes Friedensfest	8 August		Template:Efn
Assumption Day	Mariä Himmelfahrt	15 August		✔Template:EfnTemplate:Efn										✔
World Children's Day	Weltkindertag	20 September																✔Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
German Unity Day	Tag der Deutschen Einheit	3 October	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Reformation DayTemplate:Efn	Reformationstag	31 October				✔	✔Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || ✔Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || || ✔ || ✔Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || || || || ✔ || ✔ || ✔Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> || ✔
All Saints' Day	Allerheiligen	1 November	✔	✔								✔	✔	✔
Repentance and Prayer DayTemplate:Efn	Buß- und Bettag	Wed before Totensonntag i.e. Advent Sunday − 11d		Template:Efn											✔
Christmas Day	Weihnachtstag	25 December	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Second Day of Christmas	Zweiter Weihnachtsfeiertag	26 December	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Total number of holidays per stateTemplate:Efn			12	13	10	10	10	10	10	11	10	11	11	12	11	11	10	11Template:Efn

Notes

✔ – Public holiday is celebrated in that state. Template:Notelist

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

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

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

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.Template:Fact

Customs about holidays

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)

Holiday	Local name	Date	Remarks
New Year	lang}}	1 January
Good Friday	lang}}	Easter Sunday – 2d
Easter Monday	lang}}	Easter Sunday + 1d	until 1967 and in 1990
Labour Day	lang}}	1 May
Liberation Day	lang}}	8 May	until 1967 and in 1985
Victory Day	lang}}	9 May	only in 1975
Ascension Day	lang}}	Easter Sunday + 39d	until 1967 and in 1990
Whit Monday	lang}}	Easter Sunday + 50d
Day of the Republic	lang}}	7 October
Reformation Day	lang}}	31 October	until 1966
Day of Repentance and Prayer	lang}}	Wed. before 23 November	until 1966
Christmas Day	lang}}	25 December
St Stephen's Day / Boxing Day	lang}}	26 December

See also

• Holidays in Nazi Germany

References

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