US Holiday Dates: What Day Is Mother’s Day, Labor Day and More?
Date & TimeChoose a holiday to see its date, its day of the week and the rule behind it, for the next one from today or for a year you pick. A table below lists every holiday on the list for that year, each with its date, weekday and type.
Step by step
Mother’s Day: the second Sunday in May → May 9, 2027
- The rule: Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May.
- Counting from October 12, 2026, the next one is Sunday, May 9, 2027.
- From October 12, 2026 that is 209 days.
Once every entry is valid, you’ll see each step of the calculation here.
Formula
- w
- the weekday you want, Monday = 1 to Sunday = 7
- w1
- the weekday of the 1st of the month
- n
- which one in the month: 1 first, 2 second, 3 third, 4 fourth
- L, wL
- the last day of the month and its weekday
- h, l, m
- whole-number steps of the computus: h counts the days from March 21 to the Paschal full moon, l the days from that full moon to the following Sunday (minus 1), and m is a 0 or 1 correction that moves Easter back one week in the two exceptional cases (2049, when Easter is April 18, not April 25, is one of them)
How it works
US holidays follow three kinds of rules. Some have a fixed date that never moves: New Year’s Day (January 1), Valentine’s Day (February 14), Juneteenth (June 19), Independence Day (July 4), Halloween (October 31), Veterans Day (November 11) and Christmas (December 25). Others name a weekday in a month: Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May, Father’s Day the third Sunday in June, Memorial Day the last Monday in May, Labor Day the first Monday in September and Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November. A few follow Easter, which moves from year to year.
Eleven days are legal public holidays for federal employees under 5 U.S.C. 6103: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Washington’s Birthday (the popular Presidents’ Day), Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. When one of the five fixed-date holidays falls on a Saturday, most federal employees (those on a Monday to Friday workweek) get the Friday before as the day off, which is the Saturday rule in 5 U.S.C. 6103(b)(1). When it falls on a Sunday they get the Monday after, a rule that comes from Section 3(a) of Executive Order 11582 (February 11, 1971), the authority the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) cites for it. The calculator shows that day as “Day off for federal employees”. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter and the other days on the list are not federal holidays.
Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21. The church uses a fixed table of moon dates instead of the sky, and the calculator applies that table through the standard Gregorian computus (the algorithm of Meeus, Jones and Butcher). Easter can fall from March 22 to April 25. Good Friday is two days before Easter, Ash Wednesday 46 days before and Mardi Gras, the day before Ash Wednesday, 47 days before. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, and Election Day is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November (2 U.S.C. 7), so it falls between November 2 and November 8.
With “Next one” the calculator finds the first date on or after the day you look from, so on the holiday itself it shows 0 days. With “Pick a year” it shows the holiday in that year, from 1978 to 2100. The rules are the ones in force today. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021 and Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed in 1986, so for earlier years the date is where today’s rule puts it, not a day that was observed then. Boxing Day, December 26, is a public holiday in the UK, Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries; it is on the list because many people search for it, but it is not a US holiday.
The formula
Take Mother’s Day 2028, the second Sunday of May (w = 7, n = 2). May 1, 2028 is a Monday, so w_1 = 1 and the day is 1 + ((7 - 1) mod 7) + 7 × (2 - 1) = 1 + 6 + 7 = 14, which is May 14. For the last Monday of May 2027 (w = 1), L = 31 and May 31, 2027 is itself a Monday, so the day is 31 - 0 = May 31.
A weekday rule always gives a date inside a fixed window. The second Sunday of May falls on May 8 to 14, the third Sunday of June on June 15 to 21, the first Monday of September on September 1 to 7, the fourth Thursday of November on November 22 to 28 and the last Monday of May on May 25 to 31. The same window explains why a holiday seems early or late in some years.
Example
What day is Mother’s Day in 2028?
- Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May, so start with May 2028. May 1, 2028 is a Monday.
- The first Sunday is May 7, so the second Sunday is the 14th.
- Mother’s Day 2028 falls on Sunday, May 14, 2028, the latest date this rule can give. The table shows how it moves in the years after.
Mother’s Day 2028 falls on Sunday, May 14, 2028.
Load this example into the calculatorFrequently asked questions
What day is Mother’s Day?
Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May, so it falls between May 8 and May 14: May 10 in 2026, May 9 in 2027, May 14 in 2028 and May 13 in 2029. Choose “Mother’s Day” above to see the next date counted from today.
When is Mother’s Day in 2026 and 2027?
In 2026, Mother’s Day falls on Sunday, May 10, and in 2027 it falls on Sunday, May 9. Both dates are the second Sunday in May. The table under the calculator lists the dates for the years after.
Why is Mother’s Day so early in 2026 and 2027?
The second Sunday of May always lands between May 8 and May 14, and where depends on the weekday of May 1. In 2027 May 1 is a Saturday, so the first Sunday is May 2 and Mother’s Day is May 9, one day after the earliest possible date. In 2026 it is May 10, and in 2028 it moves to May 14, the latest possible date.
What is Mother’s Day?
Mother’s Day is an American holiday honoring mothers. Anna Jarvis founded it, and in May 1914 Congress named the second Sunday in May as the day and President Woodrow Wilson issued the first proclamation. It is a national observance and not a federal holiday.
What day is Father’s Day, and when is Father’s Day 2026?
Father’s Day is the third Sunday in June, set by a 1972 law that is now 36 U.S.C. 109. It falls between June 15 and June 21: June 21 in 2026, June 20 in 2027 and June 18 in 2028. Like Mother’s Day, it is an observance and not a federal holiday.
What day is Memorial Day, and when is Memorial Day weekend?
Memorial Day is the last Monday in May: May 25 in 2026 and May 31 in 2027. Memorial Day weekend is the Saturday, Sunday and Monday that end on it, so May 23 to 25 in 2026 and May 29 to 31 in 2027. Federal law lists it as a legal public holiday (5 U.S.C. 6103).
What day is Labor Day?
Labor Day is the first Monday in September, so it falls between September 1 and September 7: September 7 in 2026, September 6 in 2027 and September 4 in 2028 (5 U.S.C. 6103). Labor Day 2025 was September 1, the earliest date the rule can give.
What day is Thanksgiving, and what day is Black Friday?
Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November: November 26 in 2026 and November 25 in 2027 (5 U.S.C. 6103). Black Friday, the day after, is November 27 in 2026 and November 26 in 2027. The fourth Thursday always falls between November 22 and November 28.
What day is MLK Day?
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the third Monday in January, so it falls between January 15 and January 21: January 19 in 2026 and January 18 in 2027. The federal holiday was first observed in 1986 (5 U.S.C. 6103).
What day is Presidents’ Day?
Presidents’ Day is the third Monday in February: February 16 in 2026 and February 15 in 2027. Federal law calls the holiday Washington’s Birthday (5 U.S.C. 6103); Presidents’ Day is the popular name for it.
What day is Easter?
Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21, by the church’s table of moon dates: April 5 in 2026, March 28 in 2027 and April 16 in 2028. It can fall from March 22 to April 25. Good Friday is two days earlier, so April 3 in 2026.
What day is St. Patrick’s Day?
St. Patrick’s Day is March 17 every year. It falls on a Tuesday in 2026 and on a Wednesday in 2027. It is a widely celebrated observance, not a federal holiday.
What day is Groundhog Day?
Groundhog Day is February 2 every year. It falls on a Monday in 2026 and on a Tuesday in 2027.
What day is Boxing Day?
Boxing Day is December 26, the day after Christmas: a Saturday in 2026 and a Sunday in 2027. It is a public holiday in the UK, Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries, but it is not a federal holiday in the US.
What day is Election Day?
Election Day is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November (2 U.S.C. 7), so it falls between November 2 and November 8: November 3 in 2026 and November 7 in 2028. Federal general elections are held in even-numbered years.
Is Mother’s Day a federal holiday?
No. The eleven federal holidays are listed in 5 U.S.C. 6103, and neither Mother’s Day nor Father’s Day is among them. Both are national observances on a Sunday, so they are not days off for federal employees. The Type column in the table shows the status of every day on the list.
When is a federal holiday observed if it falls on a weekend?
For most federal employees (those on a Monday to Friday workweek), a holiday on a Saturday is observed on the Friday before (5 U.S.C. 6103(b)(1)), and one on a Sunday on the Monday after (Section 3(a) of Executive Order 11582, as OPM states it). July 4, 2026 is a Saturday, so the day off is Friday, July 3; July 4, 2027 is a Sunday, so it is Monday, July 5. Private employers and states set their own rules.
Is it Mother’s Day in Ireland?
Ireland keeps Mother’s Day on Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter: March 15 in 2026 and March 7 in 2027. That is not the US date, so it comes about eight weeks earlier.
Why is Mother’s Day different in the USA and the UK?
The US date comes from a 1914 act of Congress that chose the second Sunday in May. In the UK and Ireland, Mother’s Day grew out of Mothering Sunday, a church day in Lent that moves with Easter, so it falls in March or early April. Many other countries follow the US date.
What day is Aussie Mother’s Day?
Australia celebrates Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May, the same rule as in the US: May 10 in 2026 and May 9 in 2027.
What is the Mother’s Day rule in gardening?
It is a gardeners’ saying: in many parts of the US, wait until after Mother’s Day to set out tender plants such as tomatoes, because frost is still possible before then. It is folklore, not a law, and the safe date depends on your local last frost date.
How many days are left until a holiday?
Choose the holiday and keep “Next one”: the calculator shows the days from the date you look from, which is today unless you change it. For the days between any two dates, use the days between dates calculator; for Christmas there is the Christmas countdown; for the weekday of any other date, the day of the week calculator.
Can I look up a holiday in a past or future year?
Yes. Choose “Pick a year” and enter any year from 1978 to 2100. The Monday rules for Memorial Day, Columbus Day and Presidents’ Day began in 1971 and Veterans Day went back to November 11 in 1978, so from 1978 the dates follow today’s rules. A holiday that did not exist yet, such as Juneteenth before 2021, shows the date its rule would give.
- 5 U.S. Code § 6103: Holidays (the eleven legal public holidays and the Saturday rule) (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
- Federal Holidays: schedules by year with the days observed (Saturday rule: 5 U.S.C. 6103(b); Sunday rule: Executive Order 11582, Section 3(a)) (U.S. Office of Personnel Management)
- 36 U.S. Code § 109: Father’s Day (the third Sunday in June) (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
- 2 U.S. Code § 7: Time of election (the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November) (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
- Mother’s Day (United States): the second Sunday in May and the 1914 measure (Wikipedia)
- Date of Easter: the Gregorian computus, worked examples and the range March 22 to April 25 (Wikipedia)
- Mothering Sunday: the fourth Sunday of Lent in the UK and Ireland (Wikipedia)
- Mother’s Day: the second Sunday in May in Australia and other countries (Wikipedia)
- Boxing Day: the day after Christmas in Commonwealth countries (Wikipedia)
- Uniform Monday Holiday Act: the Monday rules of 1971 and Veterans Day back on November 11 in 1978 (Wikipedia)
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day: first observed in 1986 (Wikipedia)
- Juneteenth: a federal holiday since 2021 (Wikipedia)