Slovakia’s public holidays are set by Act No. 241/1993 Coll. on State Holidays, Days of Rest, and Memorial Days. The law knows three kinds of days: state holidays (in Slovak: štátne sviatky), which commemorate the founding events of the country; days off (in Slovak: dni pracovného pokoja), most of them Christian feasts; and memorial days (in Slovak: pamätné dni), which remember people and events but are ordinary working days. Since November 1, 2025, three of the six state holidays have been working days.
Slovak public holidays at a glance
| State holidays | Slovakia has six state holidays; three of them, January 1, July 5, and August 29, are days off. |
| Days off | A typical year has 13 days off: three state holidays and ten other holidays, most of them Christian feasts. |
| Working state holidays | September 1, October 28, and November 17 are state holidays, but offices and businesses work as usual. |
| Memorial days | The law names 24 memorial days, from March 6 to December 30; all of them are working days. |
| Holidays on a weekend | A holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday is not moved to a weekday. |
| The year 2026 | In 2026, May 8 and September 15 are working days; under the current law, both are days off again in 2027. |
| Offices | Slovak offices do not work on days off, including the district offices where applicants for Slovak citizenship apply for citizenship and take the oath. |
What are the public holidays in Slovakia in 2027?
In 2027, Slovakia has 13 days off and three state holidays that are working days. The table lists every one of them in calendar order.
| Date in 2027 | Holiday | Slovak name | Day off? |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 | Day of the Establishment of the Slovak Republic | Deň vzniku Slovenskej republiky | Day off |
| January 6 | Epiphany (Three Kings and Orthodox Christmas) | Zjavenie Pána (Traja králi) | Day off |
| March 26 | Good Friday | Veľký piatok | Day off |
| March 29 | Easter Monday | Veľkonočný pondelok | Day off |
| May 1 | Labor Day | Sviatok práce | Day off, on a Saturday |
| May 8 | Day of Victory over Fascism | Deň víťazstva nad fašizmom | Day off, on a Saturday |
| July 5 | St. Cyril and St. Methodius Day | Sviatok svätého Cyrila a svätého Metoda | Day off |
| August 29 | Slovak National Uprising Anniversary | Výročie Slovenského národného povstania | Day off, on a Sunday |
| September 1 | Constitution Day of the Slovak Republic | Deň Ústavy Slovenskej republiky | Working day |
| September 15 | Day of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows | Sedembolestná Panna Mária | Day off |
| October 28 | Day of the Establishment of the Independent Czecho-Slovak State | Deň vzniku samostatného česko-slovenského štátu | Working day |
| November 1 | All Saints’ Day | Sviatok Všetkých svätých | Day off |
| November 17 | Day of the Fight for Freedom and Democracy | Deň boja za slobodu a demokraciu | Working day |
| December 24 | Christmas Eve | Štedrý deň | Day off |
| December 25 | Christmas Day | Prvý sviatok vianočný | Day off, on a Saturday |
| December 26 | St. Stephen’s Day | Druhý sviatok vianočný | Day off, on a Sunday |
Five of the 13 days off in 2027 fall on a Saturday or Sunday, and Slovak law has no rule that moves them to a weekday. In 2026, the calendar had 11 days off, because May 8 and September 15 were working days that year only [Section 4b of Act No. 241/1993 Coll.].
Which Slovak state holidays are working days?
Three of Slovakia’s six state holidays are working days: September 1, October 28, and November 17 [Section 2(3) of Act No. 241/1993 Coll.]. Parliament changed this in steps. October 28 became a state holiday in 2021 without becoming a day off; before that, it was a memorial day. September 1 has been a working day since January 1, 2024, and November 17 since November 1, 2025. On these three days, offices, banks, and businesses work as usual, and the state marks the anniversary with official ceremonies.
Why are May 8 and September 15 working days in 2026?
May 8 and September 15 are working days in 2026 because of a one-year exception in the law. The amendment that took effect on November 1, 2025, kept both feasts on the list of days off but made them working days in 2026 [Section 4b of Act No. 241/1993 Coll.]. Under the law as it stands in November 2026, both are days off again in 2027.
What do Slovakia’s six state holidays commemorate?
January 1: Day of the Establishment of the Slovak Republic
On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia split peacefully into two states, and the Slovak Republic was established. The day is also New Year’s Day, which Slovaks welcome with fireworks at midnight and spend quietly with family. Because Slovakia spent most of the 20th century as part of Czechoslovakia, Slovak citizenship by descent asks whether your ancestor was a Czechoslovak citizen.
July 5: St. Cyril and St. Methodius Day
July 5 honors the two brothers from Thessaloniki who arrived in Great Moravia in 863 at the invitation of Prince Rastislav. They created Glagolitic, the first Slavic alphabet, and introduced worship in a Slavic language, and Slovaks regard them as the founders of their written culture. The same date is also the Day of Slovaks Living Abroad, a memorial day for Slovaks and people of Slovak descent worldwide.
August 29: Slovak National Uprising Anniversary
On August 29, 1944, an armed uprising began in central Slovakia against the wartime Slovak State, an ally of Nazi Germany, and against the German army that had entered the country. Its center was Banská Bystrica. German forces put the uprising down by the end of October 1944, but it remains one of the largest armed acts of resistance in wartime Europe.
September 1: Constitution Day of the Slovak Republic
On September 1, 1992, the Slovak National Council adopted the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, four months before Slovakia became independent. Constitution Day has been a working day since 2024.
October 28: Day of the Establishment of the Independent Czecho-Slovak State
On October 28, 1918, the independent Czechoslovak state was proclaimed in Prague, and two days later Slovak representatives joined it with the Martin Declaration. Czechoslovak citizenship, which Slovak citizenship by descent requires of your ancestor, begins with this state. The date was a memorial day until 2020 and has been a state holiday since 2021, but it is a working day.
November 17: Day of the Fight for Freedom and Democracy
November 17 recalls two student protests. In 1939, the Nazi occupiers closed Czech universities after student demonstrations in Prague. In 1989, a student march in Prague set off the Velvet Revolution, which ended communist rule in Czechoslovakia; in Bratislava, students marched a day earlier, on November 16. November 17 has been a working day since November 1, 2025.
What are Slovakia’s other days off?
Besides three state holidays, Slovakia has ten more days off. Most are Christian feasts that reflect the country’s Catholic and Lutheran traditions.
January 6: Epiphany (Three Kings)
Epiphany, known in Slovakia as Three Kings (Traja králi), closes the Christmas season. In many places, carol singers dressed as the three kings go from house to house and chalk a blessing above the door. The law also names January 6 as the Christmas holiday of Orthodox Christians, whose Christmas Eve falls on that day under the Julian calendar.
Good Friday and Easter Monday
Good Friday and Easter Monday are days off; Easter Sunday is a Sunday in any case. On Easter Monday, boys and men visit girls and women, splash them with water, and lightly switch them with a whip braided from willow twigs (korbáč), an old custom meant to bring health and youth. In return, they receive painted eggs, sweets, or a drink.
May 1: Labor Day
May 1 is Labor Day, and since 2004 also the anniversary of Slovakia’s accession to the European Union, which the law marks as a memorial day. In many towns and villages, young men put up a tall decorated tree, the maypole (máj), on the night before May 1.
May 8: Day of Victory over Fascism
May 8 marks the end of World War II in Europe in 1945. It is a day off again in 2027 after being a working day in 2026.
September 15: Our Lady of Seven Sorrows
Our Lady of Seven Sorrows has been Slovakia’s patron saint since 1927. On September 15, thousands of pilgrims gather at her basilica in Šaštín, in western Slovakia. Like May 8, the day is a working day in 2026 and a day off again in 2027.
November 1: All Saints’ Day
On All Saints’ Day and on All Souls’ Day the next day, families visit the graves of their relatives, bring flowers, and light candles. In the evening, Slovak cemeteries glow with thousands of small lights. Only November 1 is a day off.
December 24 to 26: Christmas
Christmas Eve (Štedrý deň, literally “the generous day”) is the heart of a Slovak Christmas. Families traditionally sit down to dinner when the first star appears, starting with thin Christmas wafers (oblátky) with honey, followed by sauerkraut soup (kapustnica) and fried carp with potato salad, and they open presents brought by Baby Jesus (Ježiško) that evening. Christmas Day and St. Stephen’s Day, December 25 and 26, are quieter days spent with family.
What are Slovakia’s 24 memorial days?
Slovakia’s 24 memorial days remember people and events from Slovak history, from the Middle Ages to the COVID-19 pandemic. They are working days: the state marks them with ceremonies, flags, and wreaths, not with a day off [Section 3 of Act No. 241/1993 Coll.].
| Date | Memorial day | What it marks |
|---|---|---|
| March 6 | Day of the Victims of the COVID-19 Pandemic | Slovakia confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 6, 2020. |
| March 25 | Day of the Struggle for Human Rights | On March 25, 1988, thousands of people gathered with candles in Bratislava to demand religious freedom and human rights, and the police dispersed them with water cannons. |
| April 13 | Day of the Unjustly Persecuted | On the night of April 13, 1950, the communist regime raided the men’s monasteries of Czechoslovakia and interned the monks. |
| May 1 | Day of Slovakia’s Accession to the European Union | Slovakia joined the European Union on May 1, 2004. |
| May 4 | Anniversary of the Death of M. R. Štefánik | Milan Rastislav Štefánik, astronomer, French general, and co-founder of Czechoslovakia, died in a plane crash near Bratislava on May 4, 1919; in 1917, he had recruited Czech and Slovak volunteers in the United States. |
| June 7 | Anniversary of the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation | In June 1861, an assembly in Martin adopted the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation, the first national program to ask for Slovak self-government within the Kingdom of Hungary. |
| June 21 | Day of the Departure of the Soviet Occupation Troops in 1991 | The last units of the Soviet army, stationed in Czechoslovakia since the 1968 invasion, left the country in June 1991. |
| June 24 | Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Communist Regime | The day remembers the people imprisoned, persecuted, and killed under communist rule from 1948 to 1989. |
| July 5 | Day of Slovaks Living Abroad | The day honors Slovaks and people of Slovak descent living outside Slovakia, on the same date as the St. Cyril and St. Methodius holiday. |
| July 17 | Anniversary of the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Slovak Republic | On July 17, 1992, the Slovak National Council declared the sovereignty of the Slovak Republic, a step toward independence on January 1, 1993. |
| August 4 | Day of Matica Slovenská | Matica slovenská, the Slovak national cultural foundation, was founded in Martin on August 4, 1863. |
| August 10 | Day of the Victims of Mining Disasters | On August 10, 2009, an explosion at the Handlová coal mine killed 20 people, and the day remembers all miners who died at work. |
| August 21 | Day of the Victims of the 1968 Occupation of Czechoslovakia | In the night of August 20 to 21, 1968, Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia to end the Prague Spring, and tens of thousands of people emigrated in the months that followed. |
| September 9 | Day of the Victims of the Holocaust and of Racial Violence | On September 9, 1941, the wartime Slovak State adopted the Jewish Code, one of the harshest anti-Jewish laws in Europe; the deportations of Slovak Jews began in March 1942. |
| September 18 | Day of the State Flag of the Slovak Republic | The newest memorial day, added to the law in October 2026, honors the white, blue, and red flag of Slovakia. |
| September 19 | Day of the Establishment of the Slovak National Council | On September 19, 1848, the first Slovak National Council held its first meeting on Slovak soil, in Myjava, and called on Slovaks to rise against Hungarian rule. |
| September 22 | Day of the Fight against Hate Speech Directed at Children | The day draws attention to hateful speech aimed at children. |
| October 6 | Day of the Heroes of the Carpathian-Dukla Operation | On October 6, 1944, soldiers of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps, fighting alongside the Soviet army, reached Czechoslovak territory at the Dukla Pass after weeks of heavy losses. |
| October 12 | Day of Samizdat | The day honors samizdat, the books and magazines that people under communism copied by hand or on typewriters and passed on in secret, outside censorship. |
| October 27 | Day of the Černová Tragedy | On October 27, 1907, gendarmes fired on villagers in Černová, near Ružomberok, who wanted their own priest, Andrej Hlinka, to consecrate their new church; 15 people died. |
| October 29 | Birthday of Ľudovít Štúr | Ľudovít Štúr, born on October 29, 1815, led the generation that established the modern Slovak literary language in 1843. |
| October 30 | Anniversary of the Declaration of the Slovak Nation | On October 30, 1918, Slovak representatives in Martin declared that Slovaks would join the Czechs in a common state, which Slovak and Czech organizations in the United States had backed in the Pittsburgh Agreement earlier that year. |
| October 31 | Reformation Day | The day marks Martin Luther’s 95 theses of 1517; Lutherans have been part of Slovak history since the 16th century. |
| December 30 | Day of the Proclamation of Slovakia as an Independent Church Province | On December 30, 1977, Pope Paul VI made Slovakia a separate church province, ending the dependence of Slovak dioceses on the Archdiocese of Esztergom in Hungary. |
Which Slovak days matter most to Slovaks living abroad and their descendants?
For families of Slovak descent, a few dates stand out. July 5 is both the feast of St. Cyril and St. Methodius and the Day of Slovaks Living Abroad. October 28 and October 30 mark the birth of Czechoslovakia, the state whose citizenship opens the way to Slovak citizenship by descent. August 21 and November 17 frame the last great wave of emigration, from the 1968 invasion to the fall of communism in 1989. Our study of Slovak ancestry in America found that ancestors born in Bratislava often left in the decades after World War II, not in the great wave before World War I.
Many families abroad also kept the customs: the Christmas Eve wafers with honey, the sauerkraut soup, the painted Easter eggs. They are often the first thing people mention when they tell us where their family came from.
What other days do Slovaks celebrate during the year?
Some of the days Slovaks celebrate most warmly are not in the law at all.
- Name days (meniny): almost every day of the year belongs to one or more first names, and Slovaks celebrate their name day almost like a second birthday, with congratulations from family and colleagues and a small gift.
- Fašiangy: the carnival season between Three Kings and Ash Wednesday ends with masked processions and, in many villages, a mock funeral of the double bass (pochovávanie basy) on the last night before Lent.
- International Women’s Day: on March 8, women receive flowers at home and at work.
- Mother’s Day: Slovaks celebrate it on the second Sunday of May, as Americans do.
- St. Nicholas Day: on the night before December 6, children put their cleaned boots in the window, and St. Nicholas (Mikuláš) fills them with sweets, or with coal or an onion for those who misbehaved.
- New Year’s Eve (Silvester): Slovaks see in the new year with friends, sparkling wine, and fireworks, followed by lentil soup for prosperity on New Year’s Day in many homes.
Are offices in Slovakia open on public holidays?
No. Slovak offices do not work on days off, including the district offices where applicants for Slovak citizenship apply for citizenship, take the oath, and apply for a Slovak passport. If you plan a trip to Slovakia for the application submission, the oath, or the passport, check the dates above before you book; on the three working state holidays, offices are open as usual. The Bratislava office of FALATH & PARTNERS is also closed on Slovak days off.
Is your family eligible for Slovak citizenship by descent?
If your family still keeps Slovak Christmas Eve or Easter Monday, the connection may run deeper than tradition. Every family history is different. Submit your case for review, and we will tell you whether your family qualifies for Slovak citizenship by descent.
Submit your case for reviewThe complimentary case review is confidential. You can expect to hear from us within three business days.
General information on Slovak public holidays under Act No. 241/1993 Coll., current as of publication. Not legal advice.