Costa Rica public holidays 2026
Costa Rica has 11 national public holidays in 2026. Take those and the weekends out of the calendar and 254 working days remain.
Holiday list for 2026
| Date | Weekday | Holiday | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Thursday | New Year's Day
Año Nuevo |
Nationwide |
| 2 Apr | Thursday | Maundy Thursday
Jueves Santo |
Nationwide |
| 3 Apr | Friday | Good Friday
Viernes Santo |
Nationwide |
| 11 Apr | Saturday rest day | Juan Santamaría Day
Día de Juan Santamaría |
Nationwide |
| 1 May | Friday | Labour Day
Día Internacional del Trabajo |
Nationwide |
| 25 Jul | Saturday rest day | Annexation of the Party of Nicoya to Costa Rica
Anexión del Partido de Nicoya a Costa Rica |
Nationwide |
| 2 Aug | Sunday rest day | Feast of Our Lady of the Angels
Fiesta de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles |
Nationwide |
| 15 Aug | Saturday rest day | Mother's Day
Día de la Madre |
Nationwide |
| 15 Sep | Tuesday | Independence Day
Día de la Independencia |
Nationwide |
| 1 Dec | Tuesday | Army Abolition Day
Día de la Abolición del Ejército |
Nationwide |
| 25 Dec | Friday | Christmas Day
Navidad |
Nationwide |
2026 at a glance
January 1 holiday
February
March
April 3 holidays
May 1 holiday
June
July 1 holiday
August 2 holidays
September 1 holiday
October
November
December 2 holidays
Working days in each month
| Month | Days | Weekend | Holidays | Working | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 9 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| February | 28 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 160 |
| March | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| April | 30 | 8 | 2 | 20 | 160 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| July | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 | 184 |
| August | 31 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| November | 30 | 9 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 2 | 21 | 168 |
| 2026 | 365 | 104 | 7 | 254 | 2,032 |
What the numbers say about Costa Rica in 2026
The count uses Saturday and Sunday as the weekly rest days, the standard pattern in Costa Rica. Only holidays that apply across the whole country are deducted. Someone working in a region with its own extra days will have a little more time off than these figures show.
4 holidays land on a rest day this year: Juan Santamaría Day (11 Apr), Annexation of the Party of Nicoya to Costa Rica (25 Jul), Feast of Our Lady of the Angels (2 Aug), Mother's Day (15 Aug). On the calendar alone that means no extra time off. Some countries move the day off to the next working day; whether that applies here is set by national rules, so check before you plan around it.
July is the longest working month with 23 days, and May the shortest with 20. A gap of 3 days is enough to make a fixed monthly target noticeably harder in some months than in others. Across quarters, Q2 is the leanest at 62 working days (April, May, June).
Among the 204 countries we track for 2026, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 11, Costa Rica sits below the middle of the range, around the 37th percentile (the lowest count this year is 3, the highest 49).
Holidays create 3 stretches of three or more days off in a row. The longest lasts 4 days, from 2 April to 5 April (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday). There are also 3 bridge days: a single working day squeezed between a holiday and the weekend, where one day of leave turns into four or more days away. See every long weekend in 2026.