Bank holidays 2026 – England and Wales
The 8 bank holidays of 2026 in England and Wales, with the law behind each one and the weekday it falls on.
| Date | Day | Holiday | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | Thursday | New Year’s Day | Public holiday |
| 3 April | Friday | Good Friday | Public holiday |
| 6 April | Monday | Easter Monday | Public holiday |
| 4 May | Monday | Early May bank holiday | Public holiday |
| 25 May | Monday | Spring bank holiday | Public holiday |
| 31 August | Monday | Summer bank holiday | Public holiday |
| 25 December | Friday | Christmas Day | Public holiday |
| 28 December | Monday | Boxing Day Substitute day | Public holiday |
Holidays in the year
8
Holidays falling on a weekend
0
Working days
253
Related pages
How to read these numbers
How movable feasts are worked out
Carnival, Good Friday, Corpus Christi and other Easter-linked dates are not picked at random: they are counted a fixed number of days before or after Easter Sunday, which itself follows the Easter computus (first Sunday after the first full moon after the March equinox). In 2026 Easter falls on 5 April 2026.
Where this list comes from
The legal basis cited for England and Wales is gov.uk bank-holidays.json, an official source. This page is confirmed against an independent source.
What a "discretionary day" is not
A discretionary day is not a holiday: closing is a decision each office, business or school makes for itself, not a legal requirement. Two places in the same city can decide differently on the same day, which is why this kind of date is listed separately on this page.
Understanding the 2026 holiday calendar of England and Wales
How many of England and Wales's 2026 holidays fall on a weekday?
Of England and Wales's 8 effective holidays in 2026, 8 fall on a weekday and 0 fall on a Saturday or Sunday — 0% of the calendar. Most fall on a weekday, which is the scenario that actually keeps people out of work: anyone planning a trip or a day off gets more real dates to choose from.
Which month has the most holidays in England and Wales in 2026?
April is the busiest month for holidays in England and Wales in 2026, with 2 dates. February, March, June, July, September, October and November have no effective holiday at all this year. No single month dominates the calendar: the year's holidays are fairly spread out.
Is there a bridge day to take in England and Wales in 2026?
England and Wales has 1 possible bridge day in 2026, for a total of 1 leave day that, taken at the right time, stretch into a longer break. The biggest is around New Year’s Day, which yields 4 consecutive days off.
Does England and Wales have more or fewer holidays in 2026 than in 2025?
In 2025, the year before this one, England and Wales had 8 effective holidays, against 8 in 2026. The total did not change, but the civil calendar shifts by seven days a week, so the same fixed dates can fall on different weekdays — what really changes is how many turn into real time off.
Why do England and Wales's movable dates shift every year?
In 2026, Easter falls on 5 April 2026, and every movable feast on England and Wales's calendar is counted from that date: Good Friday, Easter Monday, Spring bank holiday. Easter has no fixed date because it follows the Easter computus, a fourth-century rule that ties it to the first Sunday after the first full moon after the March equinox — which is why it ranges between 22 March and 25 April, dragging every holiday counted from it along with it.
What holidays does England and Wales add on top of United Kingdom's own?
On top of the holidays that apply across all of United Kingdom, England and Wales has 2 dates of its own in 2026: Easter Monday and Summer bank holiday. Those dates only apply inside the region, so anyone living or travelling outside it is not entitled to that day off.
Words on this page
National holiday and regional holiday
A national holiday applies across the whole country, set by federal law; a regional one (state, provincial or municipal) applies only inside that jurisdiction, under its own law. The same date can be a day off in one city and an ordinary working day a hundred kilometres away — which is why this page always states each date's scope.
Working day
A day that is not a Saturday, a Sunday or an effective holiday (discretionary days and bank holidays do not count here). It is the unit used for legal deadlines, contracts and payroll, so the year's total of working days changes with that place's holiday calendar.
Standard definition by Convenção OIT 52/1936 (descanso semanal e feriados) · Working day
Movable holiday
A holiday that does not fall on a fixed civil-calendar date because it is counted from Easter (Carnival, Good Friday, Corpus Christi) or follows an "nth weekday of the month" rule (such as US Thanksgiving). The date shifts every year within a known range.
Easter computus
The algorithm that fixes Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the March equinox, a rule set at the Council of Nicaea (325 CE). Because it depends on the Moon, the date ranges between 22 March and 25 April, and every movable Christian holiday is counted from it.
Standard definition by Meeus/Butcher algorithm (Gregorian calendar) · Easter computus
Bridge day
One or two working days between a holiday and the weekend (or between two holidays) that, taken as leave, join up into a longer break without spending many vacation days. This page's bridge-day table shows where that happens each year.
Discretionary day off
A day on which public offices may close, but closing is not required by law — each agency, business or school decides for itself. It does not count as a holiday for labour-law purposes, which is why this page lists it separately from the table.
ISO 8601 week
The week numbering of the international ISO 8601 standard: the week starts on Monday, and week 1 of the year is the one containing January's first Thursday. Under that rule, the last days of December can belong to week 1 of the next year, and the first days of January can belong to the previous year's last week.
Standard definition by ISO 8601 · ISO 8601 week
Legal source
- gov.uk bank-holidays.json · Open Government Licence v3.0 · Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. · Checked on 7 October 2026
snapshot da fonte oficial · gov.uk bank-holidays.json