South Korea has 13 public holidays in 2026, two more than in previous years: Labor Day and Constitution Day are now days off.

You’ll find the full 2026 list below, with dates, weekdays and substitute days.

We will also dig deeper and talk about the significance of the Korean Public Holidays and how they are celebrated. 

There is also a list of the 2027 Korean National Holidays for your reference below as well. 

Throughout the page we’ve also created a number of images (including the one you can see here) that you can download, share and save.

Korean New Year, or 설날 (Seollal), is celebrated during the lunar new year, is one of the most important Korean holidays.

The date of Korean New Year will change each year as it follows the Lunar Calendar.

👉 On this day, Korean people visit family, perform ancestral rites, and wear hanbok (traditional Korean clothing).

Children also often receive red packets, which contain money, from relatives.

Food eaten includes tteokguk and jeon, which are soup with sliced rice cakes and savoury pancakes respectively.

Daeboreum (also spelled Daeborum) is also called the Great Full Moon Festival. It falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the first full moon after Korean New Year, so the date moves each year: March 3 in 2026 and February 21 in 2027.

On Daeborum, people eat many traditional types of Korean food and partake in a number of local Korean traditions.

These include cracking nuts to ensure protection from skin diseases and drinking gwibalgisul (귀밝이술).

Gwibalgisul is a shot of liquor that keeps away ear infections and illnesses.

Gwibalgisul is meant to ensure that you only hear good news for the rest of the year.

Chilseok is the Korean equivalent to Japan’s Tanabata festival and Romeo and Juliet.

Chilseok celebrates the one day a year that Jiknyeo and Gyeonwu, a couple separated by the Milky Way, can meet.

In Korea, people eat food made of wheat on Chilseok and take baths for good health.

DID YOU KNOW | Chilseok falls on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Korean Lunar Calendar.

Chuseok is the annual mid-autumn festival. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, around the autumn equinox.

The holiday lasts three days: the day before, the day itself and the day after. In 2026 it ran from Thursday, September 24 to Saturday, September 26. There was no substitute day, because none of the three days fell on a Sunday. In 2027 Chuseok runs from Tuesday, September 14 to Thursday, September 16.

Chuseok is the biggest traditional holiday in South Korea aside from Korean New Year.

On this day, Korean people visit their hometowns and families, eat songpyeon (a type of Korean rice cake), and pay respects to their ancestors.

TIP💡 Spending Chuseok in Korea as a foreigner? Seoul goes quiet as millions of people leave for their hometowns, so it’s a lovely time to explore. Seoul’s royal palaces usually open free of charge over the Chuseok and Seollal holidays, often with traditional games and performances. Check the dates before you go.

Expect many family-run restaurants and traditional markets to close, especially on the main day. Convenience stores, big café chains and cinemas stay open. KTX train tickets for both Chuseok and Seollal go on sale a few weeks ahead and sell out within hours, and highways can take twice as long as usual, so book early or stay in the city.

If you’re learning Korean in Korea, holidays like this are a great chance to practise with a host family. Many of our students get invited to share songpyeon at home.

In fact, the Mid Autumn Festival isn’t just celebrated in Korea, but in other countries throughout Asia as well.

Check out our guide to the Mid Autumn Festival from a Chinese perspective.

Now for a holiday that most certainly is only celebrated in Korea!

Hangul Day (also spelled Hangeul Day, 한글날) is a celebration of the Hangul alphabet, which King Sejong created in 1443 and officially proclaimed in 1446. October 9 marks that proclamation, and in 2026 it falls on a Friday.

Prior to the alphabet’s creation, Korean people wrote using Chinese characters, and literacy rates were much lower, as only wealthy people could afford to devote time and energy to learning thousands of Chinese characters.

While the new writing system took a while to catch on, by the mid-20th century, it was widely used in Korea.

Today Hangul is celebrated as one of the most significant achievements of King Sejong the Great, who is regarded as one of Korea’s best kings.

Check out our full guide to the Korean alphabet here. Hangul was designed to be learned quickly, and many beginners can read it within a few days. Korean itself takes longer, but it’s very doable.

Unlike in Japan, in South Korea roughly a quarter of the population is Christian (27.6% in the 2015 census), which is why Christmas is a public holiday and everyone has the day off.

On Christmas, people celebrate by going to church, putting up light displays (often in shopping districts rather than their own homes), and eating Christmas cake.

Fun fact | Instead of traditional Christmas music, K-pop groups will often release special Christmas songs, which you’ll hear played in stores!

Money is a common gift, and presents are usually only given to one’s significant other, rather than between family and friends.

And just to make things even easier, the Korean pronunciation for Christmas is simply…

크리스마스 (keuriseumaseu)