Holiday Date Calculator

What this generator does

Computes the dates of UK bank holidays, US federal holidays, the Christian calendar and common seasonal dates for any year from 1600 to 2400. Each is derived from its defining rule rather than looked up: fixed dates stay put, nth-weekday holidays are counted from the first of the month, and the moveable feasts are offsets from Easter Sunday, which is itself computed. Every row shows the rule it came from, and where a rule has an exception the tool states it rather than silently applying it.

How to use this tool

1. Enter the year.
2. Choose which sets of holidays you want.
3. Press Show the dates.
4. Each row gives the date, the day of the week, and how that date is defined.

Understanding the controls

Year

Anything from 1600 to 2400. The rules are applied as they stand today, so a date far in the past is what the modern rule would give rather than what was observed then — several of these holidays did not exist yet.

Which holidays

UK bank holidays, US federal holidays, the Christian calendar and seasonal dates, in any combination. They are listed together in date order so a year that spans more than one set reads as a single calendar.

Worked examples

Thanksgiving 2026

Thursday 26 November — the fourth Thursday of the month.

Spring bank holiday 2026

Monday 25 May — the last Monday of May.

Mothering Sunday 2026

15 March, because it is 21 days before Easter.

November 2029

Five Thursdays: the fourth is the 22nd, the last is the 29th, and Thanksgiving is the 22nd.

Common use cases

• Planning a year ahead when the printed calendar stops at December
• Checking when a bank holiday falls before booking anything around it
• Finding the dates of moveable holidays for a rota or a school calendar
• Working out Black Friday and Cyber Monday for a retail plan
• Settling an argument about whether Thanksgiving is the fourth or the last Thursday

How this generator works

There are three kinds of rule and each is computed differently. Fixed dates such as Christmas Day need no work. Nth-weekday holidays — the third Monday of January, the last Monday of May — are found by taking the first or last day of the month, stepping to the required weekday, and then counting whole weeks; the distinction between 'the fourth Thursday' and 'the last Thursday' matters, because in a November with five Thursdays those are different days, and confusing them is the single commonest error in a hand-written holiday table. Moveable feasts are offsets from Easter Sunday, which is computed by the Gregorian computus rather than looked up. Where the legislated rule has an exception the tool says so instead of guessing: a fixed date landing at a weekend usually moves the bank holiday to the following working day, the Scottish August holiday is the first Monday rather than the last, and bank holidays are occasionally moved by proclamation for a jubilee.

Randomness and fairness

Nothing here is random. Every date follows from the year by a fixed rule, so the same year always produces the same table — which is what allows the results to be checked against published dates.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Assumptions this tool makes

• The rules used are the ones currently legislated, applied uniformly across the year range.
• Dates are Gregorian, and weekdays are computed in UTC so they do not shift with the reader's time zone.

Limitations and good to know

• It gives the date a rule produces, not whether anywhere is shut. Public holiday observance differs by country, by state and sometimes by employer.
• Substitute days are described rather than applied. When Christmas Day falls at a weekend the UK bank holiday moves to the following working day; the tool tells you that rather than silently showing the moved date, because which day moves where depends on rules that vary.
• One-off changes are not included. Bank holidays moved by proclamation for a jubilee or a funeral cannot be derived from any rule.
• Regional differences are noted but not enumerated. Scotland and Northern Ireland have holidays England does not, and US states differ over Columbus Day.
• Rules are applied as they stand now. Martin Luther King Jr. Day did not exist before 1983, and the tool will still compute a date for 1900.

Common mistakes

Reading 'fourth Thursday' as 'last Thursday'

In most years they are the same day, which is why the mistake survives. In a November with five Thursdays they are a week apart — 2029 is the next one — and Thanksgiving is the fourth.

Assuming a holiday is on the same date as last year

Only the fixed ones are. Anything defined as an nth weekday moves by one or two days a year, and anything tied to Easter can move by a month.

Treating the UK as having one set of bank holidays

Scotland and Northern Ireland differ from England and Wales, including the August holiday, which is the first Monday in Scotland and the last elsewhere.

Practical tips

• Check the day of the week as well as the date. A holiday falling on a Tuesday changes how a week works far more than the date itself does.
• For anything booked more than a year ahead, compute rather than copy. The nth-weekday holidays drift by a day or two each year and it is easy to carry last year's date forward.
• If you need both UK and US dates, show them together — the combined list makes the weeks where the two calendars collide obvious.

Troubleshooting

The date shown is a weekend

That is the rule's date. For fixed-date bank holidays the observed day usually moves to the following working day, which the caveat on that row explains — the tool shows the defined date rather than guessing at the substitution.

A holiday I expected is missing

Check which sets you have selected. Regional holidays that apply only in Scotland or in individual US states are not listed, because a single date would misdescribe them.

Privacy and your data

Nothing is entered but a year, and nothing is stored. The calculation happens entirely in your browser, no selection is written into the page address, and analytics records only that the tool ran and how many dates were shown.

Frequently asked questions

Is Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday or the last?

The fourth. It is set by statute as the fourth Thursday of November, and in a November with five Thursdays that is a week before the last one. The next such year is 2029, when the fourth Thursday is the 22nd and the last is the 29th.

Why do the dates change every year?

Because most holidays are defined by a rule rather than a date. 'The last Monday of May' lands on a different date each year, and anything anchored to Easter moves with it across a five-week window. Only the fixed ones — Christmas Day, Independence Day, New Year's Day — stay put, and even those can have their observed day moved when they fall at a weekend.

Does this tell me whether I get the day off?

No, and it deliberately does not try. It gives the date the rule produces. Whether that is a public holiday where you are, and whether anything is closed, varies by country, by region and by employer.

How far ahead can it go?

To 2400, though the useful range is much shorter. The arithmetic does not degrade, but the rules do: holidays are created, renamed and moved by legislation, so a date computed for 2200 assumes rules that will almost certainly have changed.