Public holidays in Croatia

Public holidays in Croatia are regulated by the Holidays, Memorial Days and Non-Working Days Act (Croatian : Zakon o blagdanima, spomendanima i neradnim danima ^[1] ).

Public Holidays (non-working)
Date	English name	Croatian name	Remarks
1 January	New Year's Day	Nova godina
6 January	Epiphany	Sveta tri kralja
moveable	Easter	Uskrs
moveable	Easter Monday	Uskrsni ponedjeljak
1 May	Labour Day	Praznik rada
30 May	National Day	Dan državnosti	Holiday from 1991 until 2001 and since 2020*
moveable	Corpus Christi	Tijelovo
22 June	Anti-Fascist Struggle Day	Dan antifašističke borbe
5 August	Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day	Dan pobjede i domovinske zahvalnosti
15 August	Assumption Day	Velika Gospa
1 November	All Saints' Day	Dan svih svetih
18 November	Homeland War Victims Remembrance Day	Dan sjećanja na žrtve Domovinskog rata	Holiday since 2020*
25 December	Christmas Day	Božić
26 December	Saint Stephen's Day	Sveti Stjepan

* In 2020 there was a change in holidays: June 25 (was Statehood Day until 2019, became Independence Day in 2020) and October 8 (was Independence Day until 2019, became Day of the Croatian Parliament in 2020) changed names and were demoted from public holidays to memorial days (working). May 30 (was Day of the Croatian Parliament until 2019, became National Day in 2020) was promoted from a memorial day to a public holiday, and November 18 (Homeland War Victims Remembrance Day) was added as a new public holiday.

Note: Citizens of the Republic of Croatia who celebrate different religious holidays have the right not to work on those dates. Christians who celebrate Christmas, Easter and Easter Monday per the Julian calendar, Muslims on the days of Ramadan Bayram and Kurban Bayram, and Jews on the days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Memorial Days (working)
Date	English name	Croatian Name	remark
9 January	Day of Unification of Međimurje with its Parent Body Croatia	Dan sjedinjenja Međimurja s maticom zemljom Hrvatskom
15 January	Day of international recognition of the Republic of Croatia and Day of peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube Region [2]	Dan međunarodnoga priznanja Republike Hrvatske i Dan mirne reintegracije hrvatskog Podunavlja	Introduced in 2019, marked since 2020 [2]
15 March	Day of founding of the People's Protection	Dan osnivanja Narodne zaštite
30 April	Day of the Death of Zrinski and Frankopan	Dan pogibije Zrinskog i Frankopana
9 May	Europe Day and Victory Day over Fascism	Dan Europe i Dan pobjede nad fašizmom
moveable	Day of Remembrance of Croatian Victims in the Fight for Freedom and Independence	Dan spomena na hrvatske žrtve u borbi za slobodu i nezavisnost	Saturday/Sunday nearest to 15 May
25 June	Independence Day	Dan neovisnosti	was a Holiday until 2020
23 August	European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism	Europski dan sjećanja na žrtve totalitarnih i autoritarnih režima – nacizma, fašizma i komunizma
30 August	Day of Remembrance of Missing Persons in the War of Independence	Dan sjećanja na nestale osobe u Domovinskom ratu
25 September	Day of the Decision about the Unification of Istria, Rijeka, Zadar and the Islands with the Parent Body Croatia	Dan donošenja Odluke o sjedinjenju Istre, Rijeke, Zadra i otoka s maticom zemljom Hrvatskom
8 October	Day of the Croatian Parliament	Dan Hrvatskoga sabora	was a Holiday until 2020

Unofficial holidays

• Popular carnival celebrations are held in most cities and towns in the country on Shrove Tuesday (Pokladni utorak), when customarily businesses in public sector and hospitality industry cease work for the day earlier than usual, but the day is not officially designated a public holiday.
• Some cities also celebrate de facto public holidays on their patron saints' feast days. For example, in Split, the day of Saint Domnius (Sveti Duje) is celebrated on May 7, while Dubrovnik marks the day of Saint Blaise (Sveti Vlaho) on 3 February; business usually cease work earlier than usual on these days. Most of rural village parishes in Slavonia celebrate their patron saints' with kirbaj / kirvaj festival (from German kirche weihe) when schools are usually closed for a day.
• Even though Christmas Eve (24 December ), New Year's Eve (31 December), and Good Friday are not public holidays, businesses customarily close earlier (as early as 12pm).

See also

• Public holidays in Yugoslavia

References

1. "Zakon o blagdanima, spomendanima i neradnim danima u Republici Hrvatskoj" (in Croatian). Narodne novine. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
2. Mirko Savković. "Potencijali i ograničenja iskustava UNTAES-a u kontekstu projekcije hrvatske meke moći pri rješavanju međunarodnih sukoba" [Potentials and Limitations of the UNTAES Experience in Projection of Croatian Soft Power in International Conflict Resolution Efforts]. Tragovi: Journal for Serbian and Croatian Topics (in Croatian). 7 (2): 143–169.