Holidays established by law
| Date | English name | Ukrainian name | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | New Year's Day | Новий Рік | |
| 8 March [2] | International Women's Day | Міжнародний жіночий день | |
| moveable | (Revised Julian) Easter | Великдень | Religious holiday |
| moveable | (Revised Julian) Pentecost | Трійця | Religious holiday |
| 1 May [3] | International Workers' Day | День праці | Until 2018, 2 May was also a public holiday [3] |
| 8 May | Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II, 1939–1945 | День пам'яті та перемоги над нацизмом у Другій світовій війні 1939–1945 років | To commemorate the end of World War II and the Allied victory over Nazi Germany [4] |
| 28 June | Constitution Day | День Конституції України | To commemorate Ukraine's Constitution of 1996 |
| 15 July [5] [6] | Statehood Day | День Української Державності | To commemorate the Christianization of Kievan Rus' (28 July until 2023) |
| 24 August | Independence Day | День Незалежності України | From the USSR in 1991 |
| 1 October [5] [6] | Defenders of Ukraine Day | День захисників і захисниць України | Public holiday since 2015 [7] (14 October until 2022) |
| 25 December [8] [9] [5] [6] | Christmas | Різдво Христове | Religious holiday since 2017, previously celebrated on 7 January (from 2017 to 2022 celebrated on 7 January and 25 December) |
During martial law a public holiday is not a non-working day. [10]
Before the Orthodox Church of Ukraine [11] [12] and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church [13] switched to the Revised Julian calendar in September 2023 all religious holidays were observed according to the Julian calendar, since then Christmas is officially celebrated on 25 December. [5] From 2017 to 2022 Christmas was celebrated in Ukraine on 2 different days, 7 January (the date of the holiday according to the Julian calendar) and 25 December (the date of the holiday according to the Gregorian and Revised Julian calendars). [9] From 2023 Christmas is only officially celebrated in Ukraine on 25 December. [14] [15] [16] [17]
When a public holiday falls on a weekend (e.g. Saturday or Sunday), the following working day (e.g. Monday) turns into an official day off too.
If only one or only two working days are between a public holiday and another day off then the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine usually releases a recommendation to avoid this gap by moving these working days onto a certain Saturday (that is to have uninterrupted vacations, but to compensate this by work on another day which would be a day off). Usually such recommendations only concern those employees whose weekly days off are Saturday and Sunday.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine that started on 24 February 2022 led to a reappraisal of the popularity of the public holidays in Ukraine. [18] A March 2024 study by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that the popularity of Independence Day of Ukraine and Defenders Day had both almost more than doubled (from 37% to 64% and from 29% to 58%) while the popularity of International Women's Day had fallen from being labelled "most beloved" by 49% of respondents in 2017 to 21% in March 2024. [18]
