State holidays

How it works

Federal legal public holidays are in 5 U.S.C. 6103. For a Monday-through-Friday federal worker in 2026 they include, among others, Labor Day on Monday, 7 September; Columbus Day on Monday, 12 October; Veterans Day on Wednesday, 11 November; Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, 26 November; and Christmas Day on Friday, 25 December. Thursday, 3 September 2026, is not a federal holiday. The next federal Monday is Labor Day, 7 September.

States copy many of those dates and then add, rename, or skip. Columbus Day is federal; some states keep it, some call the same Monday Indigenous Peoples’ Day, some skip a closing. Juneteenth, 19 June, is now federal; states that already had an emancipation date did not all delete their older square. Washington’s Birthday is the federal name for the third Monday in February; many signs still say Presidents Day. The statute did not rename itself.

In-lieu days are a separate machine. If a federal holiday falls on Saturday, most Monday-Friday federal employees observe Friday; if it falls on Sunday, they observe Monday. Independence Day 2026 is Saturday, 4 July, so that Friday observation is 3 July for those schedules. A state may use the same weekend rule, a different one, or none. Do not assume the Friday you got off in one capital exists in the next.

Examples that are not the federal list

Patriots’ Day is the third Monday in April in Massachusetts and Maine. Cesar Chavez Day is 31 March in California. Pioneer Day is 24 July in Utah. The District of Columbia marks Emancipation Day on 16 April. Nevada Day is the last Friday in October. Those dates can close state offices and public schools in that jurisdiction without closing a federal building down the street.

Private employers are not the state. A shop, a bank branch, and a state DMV can keep three different hours on the same Monday. Banks often follow the Federal Reserve holiday schedule, which tracks the federal list, not every state extra. If you need a counter open, read that counter’s notice.

Federal list: one statute, eleven named public holidays, plus weekend observation rules for federal employees. State list: each legislature and personnel office. Extra dates are real where that state says so.

Local list: cities and counties can add still more, or close schools on a day offices stay open. Private list: a contract or a handbook, not a map of the capitol. A holiday that exists only in one state is still a holiday there. It is not a typing error on the federal calendar.

How to read “are we off?”

Ask three names: the employer, the state, and whether the building is federal. From 3 September 2026, Labor Day on 7 September is the shared near-term Monday for federal workers and for most states. After that, October splits: some state offices will close on 12 October and some will not. November 11 is Veterans Day on the federal list even when it is a Wednesday. Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, here 26 November 2026, and is the rare date almost every U.S. calendar agrees on.

Do not park a state-only date on a national “today’s holiday” widget and call the country closed. Do not treat a school in-service day as a state holiday. The words are not interchangeable.