Public holidays in Finland

All official holidays in Finland are established by acts of Parliament. The official holidays can be divided into Christian and non-Christian holidays. The main Christian holidays are Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension day, Pentecost and All Saints' Day. The non-christian holidays are New Year's Day, May Day and Midsummer Day.

In addition to this all Sundays are official holidays but they are not as important as the special holidays. The names of the Sundays follow the liturgical calendar and they can be categorized as Christian holidays. When the standard working week in Finland was reduced to 40 hours by an act of Parliament it also meant that all Saturdays became a sort of "de facto" public holidays, though not "official" ones. Easter Sunday and Pentecost are Sundays that form part of a "main" holiday and they are preceded by a kind of "special" Saturdays.

Several Christian holidays traditionally falling on working days or on fixed dates have been moved to Saturdays and Sundays. In 1955, Midsummer day was moved to the Saturday following June 19, the feast of the Annunciation to the Sunday following 21 March (or, if this coincides with Easter or with Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Palm Sunday), and All Saints' Day to the Saturday following 30 October. More holidays were moved in 1973: Epiphany to the Saturday following January 5 and Ascension Day to the Saturday before the traditional Thursday, but these revisions were reversed in 1991.

Tradition

Christmas Eve and Midsummer Eve might very well be the single most important holidays during the entire year for Finns. Surprisingly they are not official holidays, they are however "de facto" full holidays. They hold this "de facto" status partly due to legislation but also because most employment contracts provides for these days as full holidays. A number of the less important main holidays are also preceded by "de facto" half days, meaning that they only are half working days or school days. These are Epiphany Eve, Maundy Thursday, the day before May Day, the day before Ascension Day, the day before All Saints' Day, and New Year's Eve.

The Finnish calendar also provides for special flag days. A day's status as a flag day has no formal link with an eventual status as an official or as a "de facto" holiday.

Finland has an official National Day, December 6. Some minor observances are also denoted in the Finnish calendar, though they have not been judged worthy of either holiday or flag day status.

Date	English Name	Local Name	Remarks
January 1	New Year's Day	"Uudenvuodenpäivä"
January 6	Epiphany	"Loppiainen"
"Moveable Friday"	Good Friday	"Pitkäperjantai"	The Friday before Easter Sunday
"Moveable Sunday"	Easter Sunday	"Pääsiäispäivä"
"Moveable Monday"	Easter Monday	"2. Pääsiäispäivä"	The day after Easter Sunday
May 1	May Day	"Vappu"	See Walpurgis Night
"Moveable Thursday"	Ascension Day	"Helatorstai"	39 days after Easter Sunday
"Moveable Sunday"	Pentecost	"Helluntaipäivä"	49 days after Easter Sunday
Friday between June 19 and June 25	Midsummer Eve	"Juhannusaatto"	Non official - "however a de facto full holiday"
Saturday between June 20 and June 26	Midsummer Day	"Juhannuspäivä"	Moved from June 24
Saturday between October 31 and November 6	All Saints' Day	"Pyhäinpäivä"	Moved from November 1
December 6	Independence Day	"Itsenäisyyspäivä"
December 24	Christmas Eve	"Jouluaatto"	Non official - "however a de facto full holiday"
December 25	Christmas Day	"Joulupäivä"
December 26	St Stephen's Day	"2. Joulupäivä" or "Tapaninpäivä"
All Sundays		"Pyhäpäivä"	Official holidays - "names follow the Liturgical year"

ee also

*National Day of Finland
*Flag days in Finland
*Namesdays in Finland
*Tourism in Finland