South Korea Public Holidays 2026
South Korea has 12 national public holidays in 2026, starting with New Year's Day on 1 January 2026 and ending with Christmas Day on 25 December 2026. Four well placed days of leave buy 20 days away from work in 2026, because four holidays sit exactly one working day from a weekend.
| Holiday | Date | Weekday | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day์ ์ | Thursday | Public holiday | |
| Korean New Year์ค๋ | Tuesday | Public holiday3 days | |
| Independence Movement Day3ยท1์ | SundayWeekend | Public holiday | |
| Children's Day์ด๋ฆฐ์ด๋ | Tuesday | Public holiday | |
| Buddha's Birthday์๊ฐํ์ ์ผ | SundayWeekend | Public holiday | |
| Memorial Dayํ์ถฉ์ผ | SaturdayWeekend | Public holiday | |
| Constitution Day์ ํ์ | Friday | Public holiday | |
| Liberation Day๊ด๋ณต์ | SaturdayWeekend | Public holiday | |
| Korean Thanksgiving์ถ์ | Thursday | Public holiday3 days | |
| National Foundation Day๊ฐ์ฒ์ | SaturdayWeekend | Public holiday | |
| Hangul Dayํ๊ธ๋ | Friday | Public holiday | |
| Christmas Day๊ธฐ๋ ํ์ ์ผ | Friday | Public holiday |
- Status
- Set in lawThe calendar is set in standing law rather than announced year by year, so 2026 needs no separate publication.
- Last verified
- The last full review of the dataset behind the South Korea calendar. No correction specific to South Korea has been needed since.
- Source
- date-holidays open dataset (ISC and CC BY 3.0), with no corrections needed for South Korea.Always confirm official dates with a local authority before booking travel. How these calendars are built. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will check it.
May is the densest month for holidays, which tends to shape travel and shopping patterns. Five of them fall on a Saturday or Sunday in 2026, which is worth checking if you are counting on days off from work. The table below lists every South Korea public holiday for 2026 with its exact date and the weekday it falls on, so you can see the long weekends at a glance. Only nationwide public holidays are included here, which keeps the South Korea calendar clean and comparable.
Frequently asked questions
How many public holidays does South Korea have in 2026?
South Korea has 12 national public holidays in 2026. The first is New Year's Day on 1 January 2026 and the last is Christmas Day on 25 December 2026.
What is the first public holiday of 2026 in South Korea?
The first public holiday of 2026 is New Year's Day, which falls on 1 January 2026.
When is New Year celebrated in South Korea in 2026?
In 2026, New Year's Day in South Korea is on 1 January 2026.
Are regional holidays included for South Korea?
No. This calendar lists national public holidays only, so it stays consistent across countries. Holidays that apply to just part of South Korea are listed separately on the South Korea holiday hub, together with the regions that observe them.
Do the South Korea holiday dates change from 2026 to the next year?
Some of them do. Three of the 12 holidays in 2026 sit on a moving rule (lunisolar calendar), so their date has to be recalculated for every year. The rest keep the same calendar date and only change weekday. Moving ones this year include Korean New Year on 17 February 2026, Buddha's Birthday on 24 May 2026 and Korean Thanksgiving on 24 September 2026.
How far ahead is the South Korea calendar actually fixed?
Through 2027. The holidays are set in law rather than announced year by year, so the dates repeat predictably. What can still change is a law amendment, a one-off holiday declared for a national event, and the exact day of any holiday on the Islamic calendar, which is confirmed by moon sighting. No corrections to the underlying dataset were needed for South Korea.
Which South Korea holidays are regional, and which move?
The table above is the national calendar for 2026. Some holidays keep the same date every year while others are tied to Easter, to a lunar calendar or to a named weekday, and some parts of the country add their own days off. The South Korea holiday hub breaks that down: which holidays are fixed, which move and why, and which ones are observed in certain regions only. To compare South Korea with other countries in the same year, see the 2026 worldwide overview.
Other years for South Korea
Planning further ahead or looking back? Compare the South Korea public holiday calendar across years:
Plan around the South Korea 2026 calendar
Knowing the dates is half the question. The other half is what they add up to: which of them create a long weekend and how many working days the year leaves. The 2026 worldwide overview compares every country on holiday count and weekend overlap, and the country index ranks all 44 of them. The same figures are available as JSON, and the dates as a calendar file.