2027 calendar with South Africa public holidays
Free printable PDF, nothing uploaded. All 12 public holidays marked, with the Mondays the Act adds after a Sunday; school holidays with one switch.
2027 public holidays at a glance
- New Year's Day
- Human Rights Day*
- Good Friday
- Family Day
- Freedom Day
- Workers' Day†
- Youth Day
- National Women's Day
- Heritage Day
- Day of Reconciliation
- Christmas Day†
- Day of Goodwill*
* Falls on a Sunday (21 Mar, 26 Dec), so the Monday is the public holiday; the grid shades both. † A Saturday, not moved. Source: gov.za and the Public Holidays Act, retrieved 2026-10-14. Every date with its source.
2027
Want your own photo on each month? and add one per month, or one for all twelve.
Photos optional
Your photos never leave this device. They are read and shrunk inside this browser tab and go straight into the PDF; nothing is uploaded, and they are not part of the link.
Holidays
Nothing is uploaded. The grid and the PDF are made on your own device; the holiday dates ship with the page, copied from gov.za's 2027 list and section 2(1) of the Public Holidays Act (both retrieved 2026-10-14). No account, no watermark.
All 2027 South African public holidays, by date
12 public holidays on 14 dates: the two that fall on a Sunday are listed on the Sunday and again on the Monday that becomes the holiday. Each date links the page it was copied from, with the day it was retrieved.
| Date | Holiday | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Public holidays in South Africa 14 days | ||
| New Year's Day | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Human Rights Day | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Public holiday Human Rights Day observed | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Good Friday | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Family Day | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Freedom Day | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Workers' Day | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Youth Day | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| National Women's Day | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Heritage Day | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Day of Reconciliation | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Christmas Day | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Day of Goodwill | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
| Public holiday Day of Goodwill observed | South African Government (gov.za) retrieved 2026-10-14 | |
Why two Mondays are listed. Section 2(1) of the Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994 says the days in its Schedule 1 are public holidays, and whenever any public holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday shall be a public holiday
. In 2027 that makes Monday 22 March (after Human Rights Day) and Monday 27 December (after the Day of Goodwill) public holidays. gov.za's list prints 22 March but ends at Sunday 26 December, so the 27 December row cites the Act itself.
The table is generated from the holiday data shipped with this page (holidays-2027.js, the same file the grid and the PDF use); no date is typed in by hand.
Long weekends in 2027 South African public holidays
Three or more days off in a row, made of Saturdays, Sundays and the holidays marked on this calendar.
- Fri 1 Jan – Sun 3 Jan 3 days New Year's Day
- Sat 20 Mar – Mon 22 Mar 3 days Human Rights Day + Public holiday Human Rights Day observed
- Fri 26 Mar – Mon 29 Mar 4 days Good Friday + Family Day
- Sat 7 Aug – Mon 9 Aug 3 days National Women's Day
- Fri 24 Sep – Sun 26 Sep 3 days Heritage Day
- Sat 25 Dec – Mon 27 Dec 3 days Christmas Day + Day of Goodwill + Public holiday Day of Goodwill observed
Bridge days — suggestions, not holidays
Ordinary working days between a holiday and a weekend: book them as leave and the days off join up. They are never marked on the calendar.
Take 1 day off, get 4
- Mon 26 Apr → Sat 24 Apr – Tue 27 Apr, 4 days off in a row Freedom Day
- Fri 17 Dec → Thu 16 Dec – Sun 19 Dec, 4 days off in a row Day of Reconciliation
Take 2 days off, get 5
- Mon 14 Jun – Tue 15 Jun → Sat 12 Jun – Wed 16 Jun, 5 days off in a row Youth Day
- Thu 17 Jun – Fri 18 Jun → Wed 16 Jun – Sun 20 Jun, 5 days off in a row Youth Day
Take 3 days off, get 10
- Tue 23 Mar – Thu 25 Mar → Sat 20 Mar – Mon 29 Mar, 10 days off in a row Human Rights Day + Public holiday Human Rights Day observed + Good Friday + Family Day
South Africa's public holidays in 2027
Schedule 1 of the Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994 names 12 public holidays. Ten have fixed dates; Good Friday and Family Day follow Easter. In 2027 they are New Year's Day (Friday 1 January), Human Rights Day (21 March), Good Friday (26 March), Family Day (Monday 29 March), Freedom Day (Tuesday 27 April), Workers' Day (1 May), Youth Day (Wednesday 16 June), National Women's Day (Monday 9 August), Heritage Day (Friday 24 September), the Day of Reconciliation (Thursday 16 December), Christmas Day (25 December) and the Day of Goodwill (26 December).
The Sunday rule: section 2(1)
Section 2(1) of the Act makes the following Monday a public holiday whenever a holiday falls on a Sunday. That happens twice in 2027: Human Rights Day is Sunday 21 March, so Monday 22 March is a public holiday, and the Day of Goodwill is Sunday 26 December, so Monday 27 December is one. The rule covers Sundays only. Workers' Day (Saturday 1 May) and Christmas Day (Saturday 25 December) stay on the Saturday, with no weekday added. That leaves 10 public holidays on a Monday to Friday in 2027.
Section 2(2) lets an employer and an employee agree to swap a public holiday for another day. Under section 18 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, nobody can be made to work on a public holiday without agreeing to it. Anyone who does work one is paid at least double their ordinary daily wage.
Long weekends in 2027
Six holidays give a three- or four-day weekend with no leave taken. Those are 1 to 3 January, 20 to 22 March (Human Rights Day), Easter from Friday 26 to Monday 29 March, 7 to 9 August (Women's Day), 24 to 26 September (Heritage Day) and 25 to 27 December. Two more need one day of leave each. Freedom Day falls on a Tuesday, so taking Monday 26 April gives four days from 24 to 27 April. The Day of Reconciliation is a Thursday, so taking Friday 17 December gives 16 to 19 December. Youth Day, on Wednesday 16 June, sits in the middle of the week.
2027 school terms and holidays
Tick School holidays under the grid (or open ?sch=1) and the 2027 calendar for public schools is drawn as a grey hatched band, on screen and in every PDF layout, with each break listed under the calendar. The dates come from the Minister of Basic Education's notice in Government Gazette No. 52178 of 25 February 2025, one calendar for every province, with no inland and coastal split. It prints term dates only: Term 1 runs 13 January to 19 March, Term 2 6 April to 25 June, Term 3 20 July to 22 September and Term 4 5 October to 8 December. The holidays are the days between, so the March–April break is Saturday 20 March to Monday 5 April (Human Rights Day's Monday and the whole Easter weekend fall inside it), the winter break 26 June to 19 July and the spring break 23 September to 4 October.
The Gazette writes the year's ends as "(11) 13 January" and "08 (10) December" and its key has days for administration: schools open for staff on Monday 11 January and for learners on Wednesday 13 January, and learners finish on Wednesday 8 December, staff on Friday 10 December. Those four staff-only days are listed under the grid, and the band starts on 11 December. Monday 26 April is a special school holiday, the day before Freedom Day: schools are closed, but it is not a public holiday, so it is listed rather than shaded, and it does not make a long weekend here. gov.za's summary page prints Term 3 ending on 1 October and Term 4 starting on 11 October; the Gazette is the legal notice and its school-day counts (47 in Term 3, 47 in Term 4) fit its own dates, so its dates are shown. Independent schools set their own terms.
Printing on A4
This page starts on A4, landscape, with weeks starting on Monday, the way South African calendars and diaries are printed. Download the PDF, then pick Actual size or Scale 100% in the print dialog. The sheet is exactly 297 × 210 mm, and the grid keeps about 11 mm from every edge, more than the strip a home printer cannot reach. For a fridge or office calendar, choose A month per page in portrait. Each day cell then carries the holiday's name, and you can add your own photo to each month without it leaving your device. The address keeps your choices. ?layout=month&orient=portrait opens the monthly version and ?weeks=1 adds ISO week numbers.
Honest limits
The dates were copied once, on 2026-10-14, from gov.za's public holidays page and from the Act. A change made after that day shows up here only once the page is updated. On that day gov.za's 2027 list did not yet print Monday 27 December, so that date rests on section 2(1) alone. The President can also declare an extra public holiday in the Government Gazette, as was done for the election days of 8 May 2019 and 29 May 2024. A day declared after 2026-10-14 is not on this calendar. Religious days other than Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, are not marked; school holidays appear only with the School holidays switch, as gazetted for 2027 and read on 2026-10-15. The main 2027 calendar maker has the same tool for the other countries and regions.
How a long weekend is counted
A long weekend here is any run of three or more days off in a row made only of Saturdays, Sundays and the public holidays this calendar marks for your country (and region, if you pick one). Nothing else counts: a day the source does not list is a working day, no “observed” day is added that the source does not state, and a holiday marked for part of a day only (Queensland’s Christmas Eve, from 6 pm) does not join a run. In England and Wales, Good Friday (26 March 2027) and Easter Monday (29 March) make one four-day run; the other 2027 bank holidays are Mondays, giving three-day weekends, and the substitute days for Christmas make Saturday 25 to Tuesday 28 December four days.
Bridge days are suggestions, not holidays. A bridge day is an ordinary working day between a holiday and a weekend. Take Friday 7 May 2027 off in Germany, after Ascension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt) on Thursday 6 May, and you are off Thursday to Sunday: four days for one day of leave. Two days of leave are listed when they give five or more days off, and three only when they join two weekends — Wednesday 29 to Friday 31 December in England and Wales turn into ten days, Saturday 25 December to Monday 3 January 2028 (the New Year substitute day). A bridge day is never coloured on the grid or in the PDF. Tick Mark long weekends (or add lw=1 to the link) to draw a dashed outline round every run on the sheet and in each PDF layout; month pages also print each run under that month’s holidays.