Holidays in Switzerland

Beside a number of national public holidays, there are also religious and local holidays. The table below lists all national, some religious and a few local holidays of the largest towns.

Date	Name		Remark
	German	English
January 1	Neujahrstag	New Year's Day	-
January 2	Berchtoldstag	Berchtold's Day	-
End of February	Morgenstraich	-	Basel: Traditional carneval
Varying*	Karfreitag	Good Friday	Jesus' day of death
Varying*	Ostern	Easter	Jesus' resurrection
Varying*	Ostermontag	Easter Monday	-
3rd Monday in April	Sechseläuten	-	Zürich: Very traditional celebration to drive away winter time by burning a symbolic snow man dummy
May 1	Tag der Arbeit	Labor Day	-
Varying*	Auffahrt	Ascension Day	Jesus' ascension
Varying*	Pfingstsonntag	Whitsunday	-
Varying*	Pfingstmontag	Whitmonday	-
April	Fronleichnam	Corpus Christi Day	Celebrated only in cantons with mainly catholic citizens
August 1	Nationalfeiertag	National Holiday	August 1, 1291 has been declared as Switzerland's birthday
2nd weekend in September	Knabenschiessen	-	Zürich: Traditional shooting contest for 13 to 17 years old boys - and since 1995 also for girls
November 1	Allerheiligen	All Saints' Day	Celebrated only in cantons with mainly catholic citizens
November	Zibelimärit	-	Bern: Traditional market fair
December 25	Weihnachten	Christmas	-
December 26	Stephanstag	Stephan's Day	-
December 31	Silvester	New Year's Eve	-

Varying*: The dates for Easter and Whitsuntide depend on the phases of the moon. The council in 325 defined that Easter shall be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the beginning of spring. Carl Friedrich Gauss found a formula to calculate the date of Easter (Easter formula).

There is a quite comprehensive list of holidays at Holidays Europe.