Fixed national holidays and leave packing
Time off is scarce; weekends and public holidays multiply its value when you place vacation days carefully. The Holidays (Vacation Days) family helps you list fixed-date national holidays for a country and year, and simulate vacation placements that stretch days off across long weekends—without pretending to replace HR policy software.
Browse observances with show national holidays before you plan, then try packing scenarios in the vacation optimizer.
Fixed dates vs movable feasts
Both subtools emphasize holidays that fall on the same calendar date every year (for example many Independence Day style observances). Movable feasts such as Easter are excluded from these datasets. That is intentional: Easter and related Christian movable dates belong to the Easter family, where Gregorian and Julian computus live.
If your country’s main spring break hinges on Easter Monday, combine:
- Easter tools for the movable Sunday/Monday.
- Holidays show/simulator for fixed national dates.
- Your employer’s calendar for company-specific closures.
Show national holidays
Show lists fixed national holidays for a selected country and year. Use it to:
- See which mid-week dates are public holidays.
- Cross-check a travel plan against local closures.
- Build personal spreadsheets before asking HR.
Country coverage depends on the bundled holiday data. Regions, states, and municipal holidays may be absent even when national ones appear. Always verify against an official government or employer source before booking non-refundable travel.
Vacation optimizer (simulator)
Simulator asks how many paid days off you can spend, which weekdays you normally work, and which country/year context to use. It searches for placements that turn small PTO spends into longer continuous free blocks by leaning on weekends and fixed holidays.
The optimizer is a ** combinatorial helper**, not a guarantee that your manager will approve the dates, that remaining PTO balances are correct, or that “bridge days” are unpaid in your jurisdiction. Work patterns matter: if you already work Saturdays, weekend leverage changes.
Inputs that change the answer
- Days off budget — how many PTO days you may spend.
- Work-on checkboxes — which weekdays count as working days for you.
- Country & year — which fixed holiday set applies.
- Remainder messaging — leftover days you still need to schedule elsewhere.
If no valid suggestion appears, constraints may be too tight (too few PTO days, unusual work week, or sparse holidays in that season).
Planning patterns
Bridge a Monday holiday. Taking Friday off can yield a four-day weekend when Monday is already a holiday.
Cluster around a mid-week holiday. Sometimes taking Tuesday–Thursday around a Wednesday holiday outperforms scattering single days.
Year-end remnants. Simulators help spend leftover days before they expire, subject to blackout policies the tool cannot see.
Choosing show vs simulator
| Goal | Prefer |
|---|---|
| Read the holiday list | Show |
| Maximize continuous free time from a PTO budget | Simulator |
| Compute Easter-related closures | Easter |
| Count raw days between trips | Date days-between |
Limitations
- Fixed-date data only; Easter-style movables excluded.
- Not legal advice on statutory leave entitlements.
- Not synchronized to live government gazettes; data can lag reforms.
- Regional holidays, election days, and company shutdowns may be missing.
- Optimizer suggestions ignore flight prices, school schedules, and team coverage.
Privacy and workplace etiquette
Holiday planning is personal. You do not need to paste employer identifiers into the tool—country, year, and day counts usually suffice. Discuss final dates through normal leave systems so coverage and policy rules are respected.
Related tooling
Companion calculators: Easter for movable Christian feasts; Time and Date for durations and day counts around the trips you book.
Summary
Holidays tools list fixed national observances and simulate PTO placements that exploit weekends and those fixed dates. Verify against official calendars, handle Easter separately, and treat optimizer output as a planning aid—not an HR approval.