Except for the national holiday (German Unity Day

German Unity Day

The Day of German Unity is the national day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990, when the goal of a unity of Germany that originated in the middle of the 19th century, was fulfilled. Therefore, the name addresses...

), public holidays in Germany (gesetzliche Feiertage) are determined by the federal states

States of Germany

Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...

.

Holiday	Local Name	Date	BW Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...	BY Bavaria Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...	BE Berlin Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...	BB Brandenburg Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...	HB Bremen (state) The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...	HH Hamburg -History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...	HE Hesse Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...	MV	NI Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...	NW North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...	RP Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....	SL Saarland Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...	SN Saxony The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....	ST Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...	SH Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...	TH Thuringia The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
New Year's Day New Year's Day New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...	Neujahrstag	1 January	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Epiphany Epiphany (Christian) Epiphany, or Theophany, meaning "vision of God",...	Heilige Drei Könige	6 January	•	•												•
Good Friday Good Friday Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...	Karfreitag	Easter Sunday - 2d	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Easter Monday Easter Monday Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and is celebrated as a holiday in some largely Christian cultures, especially Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox cultures...	Ostermontag	Easter Sunday + 1d	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
International Workers' Day International Workers' Day International Workers' Day is a celebration of the international labour movement and left-wing movements. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labour unions throughout most of the world. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries...	Tag der Arbeit	1 May	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Ascension Day	Christi Himmelfahrt	Easter Sunday + 39d	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Whit Monday Whit Monday Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday is the holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost, a movable feast in the Christian calendar. It is movable because it is determined by the date of Easter....	Pfingstmontag	Easter Sunday + 50d	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Corpus Christi Corpus Christi (feast) Corpus Christi is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ . It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in...	Fronleichnam	Easter Sunday + 60d	•	•					•			•	•	•	1			2
Peace Festival	Friedensfest	8 August		3
Assumption Day	Mariä Himmelfahrt	15 August		5,7										•
German Unity Day German Unity Day The Day of German Unity is the national day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990, when the goal of a unity of Germany that originated in the middle of the 19th century, was fulfilled. Therefore, the name addresses...  6	Tag der Deutschen Einheit	3 October	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Reformation Day Reformation Day Reformation Day is a religious holiday celebrated on October 31 in remembrance of the Reformation, particularly by Lutheran and some Reformed church communities...	Reformationstag	31 October				•				•					•	•		•
All Saints All Saints All Saints' Day , often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honour of all the saints, known and unknown...	Allerheiligen	1 November	•	•								•	•	•
Day of Repentance and Prayer 4	Buß- und Bettag	Wed. before 23 November		7											•
Christmas Day	Weihnachtstag	25 December	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
St Stephen's Day	Zweiter Weihnachtsfeiertag	26 December	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Total 8			12	13	9	9	9	9	10	10	9	11	11	12	11	11	9	10

Notes on the table

•	Public holiday within this state.
1	Only in a few Sorbian Sorbs Sorbs are a Western Slavic people of Central Europe living predominantly in Lusatia, a region on the territory of Germany and Poland. In Germany they live in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony. They speak the Sorbian languages - closely related to Polish and Czech - officially recognized and...  communities.
2	Only in the Catholic Catholic The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...  district of Eichsfeld Eichsfeld The Eichsfeld is a historical region in the southeast of Lower Saxony and northwest of Thuringia in the south of the Harz mountains... .
3	Only in the city of Augsburg Augsburg Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a... .
4	Public holiday in all states until 1994. The holiday was dropped in exchange for the introduction of nursing care insurance. Saxony is the only state where employers do not have to pay for nursing care insurance, as it was all paid by the employees, so they could keep the holiday.
5	Only in the approx. 1700 communities with mostly Catholic inhabitants and in the cities of Augsburg Augsburg Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...  and Munich Munich Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat... .
6	National holiday since 1990, commemorating German reunification German reunification German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...  on that date. Formerly 17 June in West Germany, commemorating the Workers' Uprising of 1953 in East Germany Uprising of 1953 in East Germany The Uprising of 1953 in East Germany started with a strike by East Berlin construction workers on June 16. It turned into a widespread anti-Stalinist uprising against the German Democratic Republic government the next day.... , also known as the "Day of German Unity". East Germany's national day was 7 October, the founding of the state in 1949.
7	On these days, schools are closed all over the state.
8	For states where not all holidays are observed consistently, the most widespread combination is given. Bavaria: including Assumption Day, excluding Peace Festival; Saxony and Thuringia: excluding Corpus Christi.

Good Friday and Holy Saturday are silence holidays by law.

Custom about holidays

Either Carnival

Carnival

Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

 Monday ("Rose Monday") or Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras

The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...

 is a de facto

De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

 holiday in some towns and cities in Catholic western and southern Germany which have a strong Carnival tradition.

Ascension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt) and Corpus Christi (Fronleichnam) are both on a Thursday each year. Taking only one day leave, employees can get a ‘four-day weekend’.

The Three Kings Day, better known as Epiphany, is 6 January, the day after the 12 days of Christmas. In parts of Germany, it has its own local customs.