Iceland public holidays 2026
Iceland has 16 national public holidays in 2026. Take those and the weekends out of the calendar and 248 working days remain.
Holiday list for 2026
| Date | Weekday | Holiday | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Thursday | New Year's Day
Nýársdagur |
Nationwide |
| 2 Apr | Thursday | Maundy Thursday
Skírdagur |
Nationwide |
| 3 Apr | Friday | Good Friday
Föstudagurinn langi |
Nationwide |
| 5 Apr | Sunday rest day | Easter Sunday
Páskadagur |
Nationwide |
| 6 Apr | Monday | Easter Monday
Annar í páskum |
Nationwide |
| 23 Apr | Thursday | First Day of Summer
Sumardagurinn fyrsti |
Nationwide |
| 1 May | Friday | May Day
Verkalýðsdagurinn |
Nationwide |
| 14 May | Thursday | Ascension Day
Uppstigningardagur |
Nationwide |
| 24 May | Sunday rest day | Pentecost
Hvítasunnudagur |
Nationwide |
| 25 May | Monday | Whit Monday
Annar í hvítasunnu |
Nationwide |
| 17 Jun | Wednesday | Icelandic National Day
Þjóðhátíðardagurinn |
Nationwide |
| 3 Aug | Monday | Commerce Day
Frídagur verslunarmanna |
Nationwide |
| 24 Dec | Thursday | Christmas Eve
Aðfangadagur |
Nationwide |
| 25 Dec | Friday | Christmas Day
Jóladagur |
Nationwide |
| 26 Dec | Saturday rest day | St. Stephen's Day
Annar í jólum |
Nationwide |
| 31 Dec | Thursday | New Year's Eve
Gamlársdagur |
Nationwide |
2026 at a glance
January 1 holiday
February
March
April 5 holidays
May 4 holidays
June 1 holiday
July
August 1 holiday
September
October
November
December 4 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 | 4 | 18 | 144 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 3 | 18 | 144 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| July | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 | 184 |
| August | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| November | 30 | 9 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 3 | 20 | 160 |
| 2026 | 365 | 104 | 13 | 248 | 1,984 |
What the numbers say about Iceland in 2026
The count uses Saturday and Sunday as the weekly rest days, the standard pattern in Iceland. 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.
3 holidays land on a rest day this year: Easter Sunday (5 Apr), Pentecost (24 May), St. Stephen's Day (26 Dec). 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 18. A gap of 5 days is enough to make a fixed monthly target noticeably harder in some months than in others. Across quarters, Q2 is the leanest at 57 working days (April, May, June).
Among the 204 countries we track for 2026, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 16, Iceland sits above the middle of the range, around the 87th percentile (the lowest count this year is 3, the highest 49).
Holidays create 5 stretches of three or more days off in a row. The longest lasts 5 days, from 2 April to 6 April (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday). 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.