Public Holidays in Belgium 2026 and 2027: Full Dates

Belgium has 10 legal public holidays, and this list covers all of them for 2026 and 2027, plus the community holidays, school breaks and days that are widely celebrated but not actually days off. It’s always a bummer to travel somewhere and find everything closed on the day you land, so I keep this list updated every year with the dates, a bit of context on each one, and how I spend it myself.

Top tip: want to do something on one of these days off? Have a look at GetYourGuide for tours, day trips and other things to do around the country.

What kinds of holidays does Belgium have?

Belgium has three separate categories of holiday, and mixing them up is the most common mistake in planning a trip around one. The 10 legal public holidays apply nationwide: almost everyone gets the day off, and most businesses close, exactly like a Sunday. The community holidays (one each for the Flemish, French and German-speaking communities, plus Dynasty Day and All Souls) close government offices for that community only, so shops, restaurants and most private employers stay open. Then there are days that are celebrated widely, like Saint Nicholas Day, without being an actual day off for anyone.

When a legal holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, many employers “make the bridge” (maken van de brug) and give staff the Monday or Friday off too, turning it into a four-day weekend. When a legal holiday falls on a Sunday or on a company’s usual non-working day, Belgian law requires it to be replaced with an ordinary working day off, decided first at the level of the sector, then the company works council, then the union delegation, and failing all of those, the first regular working day after the holiday, by default. Shops in Belgium generally close on Sundays already, though retailers that choose to open on Sunday instead close on a weekday, and these stores tend to stay open on public holidays too.

What are the dates of the national holidays in Belgium for 2026 and 2027?

Listed below are Belgium’s 10 legal public holidays for 2026 and 2027, sourced from the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue (SPF Emploi).

Three of these fall on a weekend in the two years covered here: Labour Day 2027 (Saturday), Assumption 2026 (Saturday) and 2027 (Sunday), and All Saints 2026 (Sunday). Under the replacement rule above, each of those produces an extra working day off for private-sector staff whose sector or employer follows the standard rule, so it’s worth checking your own employer’s published replacement-day list (Belgian employers must publish it before 15 December of the preceding year) rather than assuming the calendar date is the only one that matters.

How are the national public holidays in Belgium celebrated?

• New Year’s Day. Almost nobody works. Hospitals, police and the fire department stay staffed, but that’s about it. I always sleep in on 1 January and take it slow until the early evening, when my family gets together.
• Easter Monday. The day after Easter Sunday (itself always the Sunday after the first full moon of spring, so the date moves every year). Most things are closed, the way they are on a Sunday, and I usually just stay home.
• Labour Day (1 May). Belgium’s version of International Workers’ Day, marked by union rallies and marches on better working conditions.
• Ascension Day. Falls 39 days after Easter Sunday and marks Jesus’s ascension in Christian tradition. Belgium is nominally Catholic-majority, but only a small share of the population practises actively, so for most people Ascension is simply a day off.
• Whit Monday. The day after Pentecost (49 days after Easter Sunday), similarly a day off with little active religious observance for most Belgians today.
• National Day (21 July). Brussels holds the country’s biggest celebration, with a military parade as the highlight for most people. The date marks 21 July 1831, when Leopold I took the oath as Belgium’s first king, a few months after Belgian independence.
• Assumption of Mary (15 August). A quiet public holiday for most of the country, marked by little organised celebration outside church communities, though Antwerp uses the same date for its own Mother’s Day tradition (see below).
• All Saints (1 November). Many Belgians use this public holiday to visit family graves, technically for All Souls’ Day on 2 November, which isn’t itself a holiday, rather than for the saints the day is named for.
• Armistice Day (11 November). Marks the end of the First World War. Ypres holds the country’s most widely attended commemoration, with Belgian and foreign officials attending alongside people with a personal connection to the war, broadcast on national television.
• Christmas Day. The one other universal public holiday besides New Year’s during the several weeks of family gatherings that run from early December through New Year.

What are the community holidays and other special days in Belgium?

Community holidays close government offices for one of Belgium’s language communities but leave shops, schools and private businesses open, which is the detail most visitors miss.

Because these are government-office closures rather than universal rest days, a weekend date doesn’t trigger a replacement day the way it does for the 10 legal holidays above; the office is simply closed on its normal day off that year.

• Day of the Flemish Community (11 July). Marks the 1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs, where Flemish militias defeated French cavalry near Kortrijk (named for the spurs left behind on the battlefield). Only Flemish Community staff get the day off, though some banks in Flanders also close, and Brussels usually hosts the largest events, including concerts.
• Day of the French Community (27 September). Marks 27 September 1830, when Belgian revolutionaries defeated Dutch troops in Brussels during the fight for independence. Only French Community government staff get the day off.
• Day of the German-speaking Community / Dynasty Day (15 November). Both fall on the same date, the feast days of St Leopold and St Albert; only German-speaking Community staff and some public offices close.
• All Souls (2 November). Public offices close; shops and other businesses stay open.
• Second day of Christmas (26 December). A day off for government staff only.

Some other days are widely marked in Belgium without being a holiday of any kind, so shops, offices and schools stay open as normal:

• Epiphany / Three Kings Day (6 January). Bakeries sell a cake with a bean or small trinket hidden inside; whoever gets that slice wears the paper crown for the day. It’s one of my favourite small traditions of the year.
• Saint Nicholas Day (6 December). Belgian children get a second round of presents, separate from Christmas.
• Valentine’s Day (14 February). Celebrated, though with less commercial fanfare than in the United States.
• Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. In most of Belgium, Mother’s Day is the second Sunday of May and Father’s Day the second Sunday of June. Antwerp keeps its own older tradition instead: Mother’s Day there falls on 15 August, a custom the city has kept since 1913, when it was tied to the Catholic feast of the Assumption on the same date; Antwerp’s Father’s Day falls in March rather than June.

What are the Belgian school holidays for 2026-2027?

Belgium’s summer break is the same nationwide, since the country is small enough that it doesn’t need to stagger it by region the way France or Germany do, but the shorter breaks during the school year differ between the Flemish Community and the French Community (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles), and each community publishes its own official calendar.

Flemish Community, 2026-2027 school year (Flemish Government-approved calendar):

• Autumn break: Monday 26 October to Sunday 1 November 2026
• Christmas break: Monday 21 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027
• Krokusvakantie (February/carnival break): Monday 15 to Sunday 21 February 2027
• Easter break: Monday 29 March to Sunday 11 April 2027
• Summer break: Thursday 1 July to Tuesday 31 August 2027

French Community (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles), 2026-2027 school year:

• School year runs Monday 24 August 2026 to Friday 2 July 2027, on a rhythm of roughly seven weeks of classes followed by two weeks off.
• Winter break: Monday 21 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027
• Carnival break: Monday 22 February to Sunday 7 March 2027
• Spring break: Monday 26 April to Sunday 9 May 2027

When is Daylight Saving Time in Belgium in 2026 and 2027?

Belgium follows the EU-wide schedule. Clocks move forward one hour on the last Sunday of March, 29 March 2026 and 28 March 2027, and back one hour on the last Sunday of October, 25 October 2026 and 31 October 2027.

Things to do in Belgium during the holidays

A few activities are worth planning a day off around, from the full things to do in Belgium list.

1. Raft or kayak the Ardennes rivers. The Lesse, Ourthe and Semois rivers range from calm stretches to genuine rapids, depending on where you put in.
2. Catch a music festival. Belgium’s festival calendar runs from Tomorrowland to the historic Gentse Feesten and the more alternative Dour Festival.
3. Take a boat tour of Ghent’s canals. Trips from the Graslei and Korenlei harbours pass the Gravensteen castle and the Old Butcher’s Hall.
4. Get lost in the Durbuy hedge maze. It’s the largest of its kind in the world.
5. Try a chocolate-making workshop. A hands-on way to take home more than a box of pralines.
6. Ride a horse along a North Sea beach. Several stables along the coast run guided beach rides.
7. Zip-line through the trees at Dinant Aventure. A treetop adventure course above the Meuse valley.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the holiday dates, family traditions and tips in this post come from her own life in Belgium. The team keeps this page updated every year as Belgium’s official holiday and school-break calendars are published, and covers Belgium more broadly for independent travellers, including where to go and what to do around each of these days off.