Two days a year the shops in The Hague are actually shut: Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Everything else on the list of official holidays is a day when offices close, schools close and the trams run a Sunday timetable, while the shopping streets open at noon and do rather good business.
That gap between what is a holiday and what is closed is the thing to understand.
The Netherlands has no law saying anyone gets the day off.
Rijksoverheid puts it plainly: there is no statute making particular holidays free days for employees, and whether you are paid not to work depends entirely on your collective agreement or your contract.
The official list
Nieuwjaarsdag on 1 January.
Goede Vrijdag.
Eerste and Tweede Paasdag, Easter Sunday and Monday.
Koningsdag on 27 April.
Bevrijdingsdag on 5 May.
Hemelvaartsdag, Ascension, always a Thursday.
Eerste and Tweede Pinksterdag, Whit Sunday and Monday.
Eerste and Tweede Kerstdag on 25 and 26 December.
For 2027 the moveable ones fall as follows: Goede Vrijdag on Friday 26 March, Easter on Sunday 28 and Monday 29 March, Koningsdag on Tuesday 27 April, Bevrijdingsdag on Wednesday 5 May, Hemelvaart on Thursday 6 May, and Pinksteren on Sunday 16 and Monday 17 May.
Notice the shape of that calendar.
Two of them are Mondays attached to a Sunday, one is always a Thursday, and in a year like 2027 Koningsdag, Bevrijdingsdag and Hemelvaart land within ten days of each other.
Dutch colleagues plan holidays around that pattern and the good weeks get booked early.
Which ones you actually get
Most collective agreements give New Year’s Day, Easter Monday, Koningsdag, Ascension, Whit Monday and both Christmas days.
Good Friday and Liberation Day are the grey area where agreements differ widely, and Bevrijdingsdag in particular is generally a paid day off only in the five-yearly anniversary years, though civil servants and many schools have it every year.
If you are moving here for a job, that is a specific question worth asking before you sign: which days does this CAO treat as paid holidays.
It is a genuine difference of several days a year between employers, and it is invisible in a salary figure.
The rest of what a Dutch contract does and does not include sits in the employment contracts article.
What is open
Shops in The Hague keep long hours by Dutch standards.
The general pattern is Monday from 12:00, Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00, Sunday from 12:00, with koopavond on Thursday running to 21:00.
On most public holidays the centre opens around midday and trades normally.
Supermarkets stay open on nearly everything, often on reduced hours.
Restaurants and cafes treat holidays as good trading days.
Museums generally open.
What closes is the gemeente, the banks, the doctor’s surgery, the schools, and anything requiring an appointment.
Public transport runs a Sunday service on holidays, which is worth checking before you rely on a bus.
The night buses in the tram and bus article keep their own schedule.
Koningsdag, which is different from all the others
27 April is the only one that is a genuine national event rather than a day off.
The Hague fills up, the city turns orange, and the vrijmarkt takes over whole neighbourhoods: the Frederik Hendriklaan and Willem de Zwijgerlaan in the Statenkwartier, the Stevinstraat and Belgisch Plein in Belgisch Park, the Bosjes van Pex and several others.
The vrijmarkt is a free market in the literal sense: anyone may lay out a blanket and sell their household clutter, without a permit, for that one day.
Most Hague markets run roughly 09:00 to 16:00, with people claiming pavement from around 07:30.
Children sell toys and play recorders at passers-by for coins.
It is the least formal day in a formal country and it is worth being in town for.
Shops mostly open from midday.
The Grote Markt has live music all day.
If you dislike crowds, this is a day to be at the beach instead, because the centre is genuinely full.
4 May, which is not a holiday and matters more
Dodenherdenking, the national remembrance of the war dead, is on 4 May, the evening before Bevrijdingsdag.
At 20:00 the entire country observes two minutes of silence.
Trams stop.
Conversation stops.
If you are outside, you stand still.
It is not a day off, but it has legal force: the Winkeltijdenwet requires shops to close at 19:00 on 4 May, though a gemeente may permit exceptions.
Public venues are asked not to hold parties and to keep music off between 19:45 and 20:15 so that anyone present can observe the silence.
This is the one Dutch civic occasion where visibly not participating is noticed.
Two minutes, standing still, is the whole of what is asked.
December, and the fireworks change
5 December is Sinterklaasavond and is not a public holiday, but the country effectively stops in the late afternoon and families spend the evening together.
If you have Dutch colleagues, do not schedule anything for that evening.
Christmas is two days here rather than one, and 26 December is Tweede Kerstdag, a full holiday when a great deal is open.
New Year’s Eve, oud en nieuw, is a night in, with oliebollen, and it is the one night of the year when Dutch streets are noisy.
That last part is changing.
The national ban on consumer fireworks came into force on 1 August 2026, which means the turn of 2026 into 2027 is the first without them.
Sale to consumers has stopped.
Only F1 items, sparklers and party poppers, remain legal.
Associations and foundations with a demonstrable local connection can apply for an exemption, and professional displays continue.
Planning around it
Two practical habits.
Book anything involving the gemeente, a bank or a doctor well clear of a holiday week, because the appointment system empties out and the backlog afterwards is real.
And check the school holiday calendar if you have children, because the school holidays and the public holidays are two different lists, and the May and summer ones are staggered by region.
The compensation for all this is that a country with relatively few statutory days off has a lot of long weekends in spring.
Ascension is always a Thursday and most people take the Friday.
Between Easter and Whitsun, if you time it properly, you can be out of the office for most of six weeks having used about five days of leave.
Dutch colleagues have all worked this out already, which is why the calendar fills in January.
Sources
- Rijksoverheid, officiele feestdagen: the list of official Dutch public holidays, the statement that no law establishes particular holidays as free days for employees, and that the collective agreement or employment contract decides; 2027 dates given as Friday 1 January, Good Friday 26 March, Easter 28 and 29 March, Koningsdag Tuesday 27 April, Bevrijdingsdag Wednesday 5 May, Hemelvaart Thursday 6 May and Pinksteren 16 and 17 May
- Nationaal Comite 4 en 5 mei and Rijksoverheid, nationale herdenkingen: two minutes of silence from 20:00 to 20:02 on 4 May, shops required to close at 19:00 under the Winkeltijdenwet with municipalities able to permit exceptions, and public venues asked to avoid parties and music between 19:45 and 20:15
- denhaag.com, store opening hours in The Hague: Monday from 12:00, Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00, Thursday koopavond to 21:00, Sunday from 12:00, with shops closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day and open on the other public holidays
- Gemeente Den Haag, spelregels vrijmarkt Koningsdag, and Hague vrijmarkt listings: locations including Frederik Hendriklaan and Willem de Zwijgerlaan in the Statenkwartier, Stevinstraat and Belgisch Plein in Belgisch Park and the Bosjes van Pex, markets running roughly 09:00 to 16:00 with pitches claimed from about 07:30, and most shops opening from 12:00
- Rijksoverheid, landelijk vuurwerkverbod voor consumenten (1 July 2026 announcement) and the Wet veilige jaarwisseling: the ban taking effect on 1 August 2026 and therefore applying from the 2026 to 2027 turn of the year, the end of consumer fireworks sales, F1 items such as sparklers remaining permitted, exemptions available only to associations and foundations with a demonstrable local connection, and professional displays continuing
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