How Korea's public holidays work: substitute holidays and the lunar calendar

Holidays are set by presidential decree

The regular public holidays are New Year's Day (1 January), the three-day Seollal break (the first day of the lunar year plus the days before and after), Independence Movement Day (1 March), Children's Day (5 May), Buddha's Birthday (8th day of the 4th lunar month), Memorial Day (6 June), Liberation Day (15 August), the three-day Chuseok break (15th day of the 8th lunar month plus the days before and after), National Foundation Day (3 October), Hangeul Day (9 October) and Christmas Day (25 December). Election days and temporary holidays designated by the government are added to these.

The decree originally covered government offices only, but through the Labor Standards Act the same days now apply to private employers as paid holidays (extended in 2022 to every workplace with five or more employees).

Three holidays that follow the lunar calendar

Seollal, Chuseok and Buddha's Birthday are set by the lunisolar calendar. A lunar year is about eleven days shorter than a solar year and is corrected with leap months, so Seollal falls anywhere from late January to mid-February and Chuseok from early September to early October. This site uses conversion tables based on the almanac of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

Substitute holidays: when a holiday falls on a weekend

When a public holiday falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or another public holiday, the next weekday becomes a substitute holiday. The rule began in 2014 with Seollal, Chuseok and Children's Day, was extended in 2021 to Independence Movement Day, Liberation Day, National Foundation Day and Hangeul Day, and in 2023 to Buddha's Birthday and Christmas.

For the Seollal and Chuseok breaks the substitute applies only to clashes with a Sunday or another holiday, not a Saturday. New Year's Day and Memorial Day have no substitute at all.

Election days and temporary holidays

Voting days for the presidential election (every five years), the National Assembly election (every four years) and nationwide local elections (every four years) are public holidays. Temporary holidays are declared by a Cabinet decision, often at short notice to create a long weekend, so this site adds them only after the official announcement.

Days off that are not public holidays

Labour Day on 1 May is not a public holiday under the decree but a paid holiday under the Labor Standards Act: government offices and schools stay open while most companies close. Apart from Christmas, the end of the year is ordinary working time, with nothing like Japan's long New Year break.