Holidays in the Netherlands 2023, 2024, 2025 (public, unofficial, local)

In this publication, the ALYO.Info team will tell you about the holidays in the Netherlands in 2023, 2024, 2025. We will give the exact dates of public and unofficial Dutch holidays. We will also tell you when there will be days off and what they depend on, how wages are paid on these dates.

Table of Contents

What are public holidays in the Netherlands?

In most countries, legal or public holidays are official non-working days. But in the Netherlands this is not the case. The law establishes the status of a public holiday, but it is considered an ordinary working day. Although in most cases, residents of the country do not work on public holidays.

Whether you work on a public holiday is determined by the collective agreement. In simple terms, this is a document that is concluded between one or more organizations representing employees. If you are not working under a collective agreement, you need to look at a regular contract. As a rule, collective agreements state that public holidays and some religious holidays are days off.

Interesting fact! Most collective bargaining agreements state that Liberation Day (May 5) is a normal working day. Employees on this date are released once every five years, when the year is a multiple of 5 (2020, 2025, 2030).

Christian, Muslim and Jewish holidays

Often, by collective agreement, the main Christian holidays are considered days off. But there are also many Muslims in the country, about 5% of the population (about 850 thousand people). Also, 40-45 thousand Jews live in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Their interests are also taken into account.

Often, collective agreements indicate that a Christian church holiday can be replaced by another equivalent religious date. For example, Muslims may be given the opportunity not to work on Ramadan or Eid al-Adha, and Jews on Yom Kippur or Hanukkah. At the same time, they will have a full day of work on Easter Monday or Whitsunday.

Wages paid on public holidays

If you work under a collective agreement, then the following general rules (enshrined by law) apply to you:

If a public holiday falls on a working day (the day the employee was supposed to go to work), the employee is paid his salary.
If a public holiday falls on a non-working day (the day when the employee was not supposed to go to work), the employee is not paid his salary.

Important! Many collective bargaining agreements provide for a public holiday allowance of 50-100% of the daily wage. In the hospitality industry, the employer is required to provide additional hours of rest in addition to the supplement.

If you are not working under a collective agreement, then more options appear. Here are the main provisions for workers employed under a regular contract:

By law, an employee is not entitled to a salary on public holidays if he did not go to work.
The law does not enshrine the right to a salary increase or rest compensation if an employee went to work on a public holiday.

Holidays in the Netherlands 2023

In this section, we provide a list of public and unofficial holidays in the Netherlands for 2023 by months.

January

January 1 (Sunday) 2023: New Year’s Eve, public holiday.
January 6 (Friday) 2023: Three Kings (some provinces of Lower Brabant).

February

February 14 (Tuesday) 2023: Valentine’s Day.

March

March 22 (Wednesday) 2023: Ramadan.

April

April 5 (Wednesday) 2023: Carnival.
April 6 (Thursday) 2023: Maundy Thursday.
April 7 (Friday) 2023: Good Friday, public holiday.
April 8 (Saturday) 2023: Holy Saturday.
April 9 (Sunday) 2023: Easter Sunday, public holiday.
April 10 (Monday) 2023: Easter Monday, public holiday.
April 23 (Sunday) 2023: Anthem and Flag Day (public holiday on the island of Bonaire).
April 27 (Thursday) 2023: King’s Day, public holiday.
April 27 (Thursday) 2023: Statius Day / Flag Day (public holiday on the island of St. Eustatius).
April 30 (Sunday) 2023: Dia di Rincon (public holiday on the island of Bonaire).
April 30 (Sunday) 2023: Saba Day / Flag Day (public holiday on the island of Saba).

May

May 1 (Monday) 2023: Labor Day (public holiday in the Caribbean Netherlands).
May 4 (Thursday) 2023: Memorial Day.
May 5 (Friday) 2023: Liberation Day, public holiday.
May 8 (Monday) 2023: Labor Day (unofficial holiday in the European Netherlands).
May 9 (Tuesday) 2023: Mother’s Day.
May 18 (Thursday) 2023: Ascension of Christ, public holiday.
May 27 (Saturday) 2023: Luylak (mostly Holland).
May 28 (Sunday) 2023: Pentecost Sunday, public holiday.
May 29 (Monday) 2023: Trinity Monday, public holiday.

June

June 1 (Thursday) 2023: Emancipation Day (public holiday on the island of St. Eustatius).
June 20 (Tuesday) 2023: Father’s Day.
June 28 (Wednesday) 2023: Eid al-Adha.

July

July 1 (Saturday) 2023: Keti-Koti.

August

August 15 (Tuesday) 2023: Assumption of the Virgin.
August 21 (Monday) 2023: Lapland Day (Horn).
August 28 (Monday) 2023: Gronings Ontzet (Groningen).

September

September 18 (Monday) 2023: Prince’s Day.
September 24 (Sunday) 2023: Yom Kippur.

October

3 October (Tuesday) 2023: Festival 3 October, Leidens Ontzet (Leiden).
October 8 (Sunday) 2023: Siege of Alkmaar (Alkmaar).
October 31 (Tuesday) 2023: Halloween.

November

November 1 (Wednesday) 2023: All Saints’ Day.
November 2 (Thursday) 2023: All Souls’ Day.
November 11 (Saturday) 2023: Saint Martin’s Day (certain provinces, municipalities and cities).

December

December 4 (Monday) 2023: Saint Nicholas Eve.
December 5 (Tuesday) 2023: Saint Nicholas Day.
December 7 (Thursday) 2023: Hanukkah.
December 24 (Sunday) 2023: Christmas Eve.
December 25 (Monday) 2023: Christmas, public holiday.
December 26 (Tuesday) 2023: Second day of Christmas, public holiday.
December 31 (Sunday) 2023: New Year’s Eve.

Holidays in the Netherlands 2024

The following are the unofficial and public holidays in the Netherlands for 2024 in chronological order.