Portugal Public Holidays 2026/2027: Bridge Days & Working Days

How this works

The Labour Code (article 234) sets 13 mandatory national holidays: ten have fixed dates and three are movable, calculated from Easter. On top of those, Carnival Tuesday and each municipality’s own holiday may be observed optionally (article 235). The working-days calculator counts Monday-to-Friday days between two dates, both included, and removes the holidays that land on weekdays.

1. 1
   The 13 mandatory holidays
   Article 234 of the Código do Trabalho sets 13 mandatory national holidays: New Year, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, 25 April, 1 May, Corpus Christi, 10 June, 15 August, 5 October, 1 November, 1 December, 8 December and Christmas. On those days work is suspended with no loss of pay.
2. 2
   The movable holidays and Easter
   Three holidays change date every year because they depend on Easter: Good Friday (2 days before), Easter Sunday itself and Corpus Christi (60 days after). Carnival Tuesday is 47 days before Easter. This page computes Easter with the Computus algorithm, so it works for any year.
3. 3
   Carnival: a customary day off
   Carnival Tuesday is not a mandatory holiday: it is an optional one (article 235). In the public sector, the Government decides each year, by decree, whether to grant tolerância de ponto (a day off); in the private sector it depends on the company or the collective agreement. Many people do get it, but it is not an automatic right.
4. 4
   The municipal holiday
   Each municipality may observe one municipal holiday, also optional (article 235). In Lisbon it is Santo António, on 13 June; in Porto it is São João, on 24 June. Check your own municipality with the Câmara Municipal (town hall).
5. 5
   Bridge days and long weekends
   When a mandatory holiday lands on a Tuesday or Thursday, taking one vacation day on the Monday or Friday earns four days off in a row: this is a ponte (bridge day). If the holiday already falls on a Monday or Friday you get a three-day weekend without spending vacation; if it lands on a Wednesday, two vacation days make it five in a row. I mark every one of these for the year you pick, Carnival included.
6. 6
   How we count working days
   The calculator counts Monday-to-Friday days between the two dates, both included, and removes national holidays that land on a weekday. With the options on, it also removes Carnival and the Lisbon or Porto municipal holiday. Holidays that fall on a Saturday or Sunday are never subtracted twice.