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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Switzerland

The list of Switzerland bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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13 Jan 2008 (Tages Anzeiger-Zürich) The leader of the SVP parliamentary group, Alfred Heer, has steered a bill through that would remove May 1st from the list of public holidays in the Canton of Zürich. The lost day would be compensated by a "joker-holiday" which could be taken at anytime by employees (and would allow parents to make it coincide with one of their children's 2 "joker" school holidays). • 24 May 2007 (Le Temps) The Commission du Grütli announced, earlier today that, in 2007, there would be no celebration of Switzerland's National Day public holiday on the legendary Plaine du Grütli. • 21 Feb 2007 (AZ Online) After protests from its Catholic regions, the government of the Canton of Aargau, has reversed itself on an earlier plan to stop observing the following public holidays: Fronleichnam, All Saints, Assumption und Immaculate Conception, as of January 1, 2008. • 07 Feb 2007 (20 Minutes) The Grand Conseil has voted that the Canton of Vaud will hold a referendum as to whether January 2 and Whit Monday are to be added to the list of official cantonal public holidays (currently these 2 days are often taken, unofficially, as public holidays). • More News Updates For up-to-the-minute news about public holidays trends and changes, visit our public holidays news and updates pages, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

In addition to national public holidays, there are also religious and local public holidays. Public holidays vary from canton to canton; even some cities have their own. Here are the main ones: • Saint Berchtold's Day: (January 2) AG (partly), BE, FR, GL, JU, LU, NE, OW, SH, SO, TG, VD, ZG, ZH. • Epiphany: (January 6) GR (partly), SZ, TI, UR. • Saint Joseph's Day: (March 19) Catholic regions: GR (partly), LU (partly), NW, SO (partly), SZ, TI, UR, VS. • Good Friday: Entire Switzerland except TI, VS. • Easter Monday: Entire Switzerland except VS. • Labour Day: (May 1) BL, BS, FR (partly), JU, LU (partly), SH, SO (partly), TG, TI, ZH. • Whit Sunday & Whit Monday: Entire Switzerland except VS. • Corpus Christi: Catholic regions: AG (partly), AI, FR (partly), GR (partly), JU, LU, NW, OW, SO, SZ, TI, UR, VS, ZG. • Saints Peter and Paul's Day: (June 29) Only TI. • Assumption Day: Catholic regions: AG (partly), AI, FR (partly), GR (partly), JU, LU, NW, OW, SO, SZ, TI, UR, VS, ZG. • Prayer Day:: (in September) Entire Switzerland, but the date is different in GE. • All Saints' Day: (November 1) Catholic regions: AG (partly), AI, FR (partly), GL, GR (partly), JU, LU, NW, OW, SG, SO, SZ, TI, UR, VS, ZG. • Immaculate Conception Day: (December 8) Catholic regions: AG (partly), AI, FR (partly), GR (partly), LU, NW, OW, SO (partly), SZ, TI, UR, VS, ZG. • Saint Stephen's Day: Entire Switzerland except GE, JU, NE, VD, VS. • New Year's Eve: (December 31) Only GE. • Swiss Canton Abbreviations: AG: Aargau AI: Appenzell Innerrhoden AR: Appenzell Ausserrhoden BS: Basel-Stadt BL: Basel-Landschaft BE: Bern FR: Fribourg GE: Geneva GL: Glarus GR: Graubünden JU: Jura LU: Lucerne NE: Neuchâtel NW: Nidwalden OW: Obwalden SH: Schaffhausen SZ: Schwyz SO: Solothurn SG: St. Gallen TG: Thurgau TI: Ticino UR: Uri VS: Valais VD: Vaud ZG: Zug ZH: Zürich. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Swiss National Bank (Switzerland central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Switzerland, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Switzerland, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Switzerland, before planning any trip to Switzerland. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.