Public and school holidays in the Netherlands, 2021 (with free calendar to download)

Another (pretty strange) year gets to an end, we are ready to turn the page and to hang a new calendar to the wall.
My gift for you: Dutchgram’s calendar is here free to download for 2021.

Here you will also find information about public and school holidays, similarly to what I published last year. It will be a shortened version, therefore head to that post if interested in more details!

Public holidays (wettelijke feestdagen)

Here you can find a list of public holidays in the Netherlands for 2021. Be aware that they do not directly correspond to days off! A lot depends on the company you work for.

Old and New (Nieuwjaarsdag)1 January 2021
Three Kings (Drie koningen)6 January 2021
Carnival (Carnaval)14 February 2021
Good Friday (Goede vrijdag)2 April 2021
Easter (Pasen, 1e Paasdag)4 April 2021
Little Easter (2e Paasdag)5 April 2021
King’s day (Koningsdag)27 April 2021
Liberation day (Bevrijdingsdag)5 May 2021
Ascension day (Hemelvaart, Hemelvaartsdag)13 May 2021
Whit Sunday/Pentecost (Pinksteren, 1e Pinksterdag)23 May 2021
Whit Monday (2e Pinksterdag)24 May 2021
Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas)5 December 2021
Christmas (Kerst, 1e Kerstdag)25 December 2021
Boxing day (2e Kerstdag)26 December 2021

Curiosities about public holidays in NL

  • The Three Kings does not correspond to a day off
  • Carnival is celebrated only in the South of the Netherlands (!), and normally companies do not have days off. However, you’ll be able to take part to wild and colorful parties
  • Most of the public holidays are concentrated around May.
  • May 1st is not celebrated. The reason for it seems to be some political argues between labor-unions and government (I link here an interesting article from the Volkskrant of some years ago – in Dutch), a milder socialist and communistic history, and the fact that Dutch companies wouldn’t see positively public demonstrations. The Volkskrant also says we shouldn’t worry about that day off – it’s compensated somewhere else in the year
  • The Netherlands have an additional festivity celebrating the monarchy on King’s day (April 27th) since 2014. Before that, it used to be Queen’s day (April 30th). King’s day is a very orange, loud and festive day
  • The liberation day (Bevrijdingsdag) on May 5th is an official Dutch festivity, but not necessarily a day off
  • At Sinterklaas (December 5th) companies do sometimes allow you to stop working earlier to enjoy the evening with the family

School holidays

School holidays are divided across the year in spring, May, summer, autumn and Christmas holidays.
Although all schools divide days off in these chunks, they might differ slightly according to the geography. As a general rule, when there is a difference, schools in the North of the Netherlands anticipate the holiday.
You can find the details below (information from website of the government)

Spring holiday (voorjaarsvakantie)

  • North and Center 20 – 28 February 2021
  • South 13 February – 21 February 2021

May holiday (meivakantie)

  • North, Center and South 1 – 9 May 2021

Summer holiday (zomervakantie)

  • North 10 July – 22 August 2021
  • Center 17 July – 29 August 2021
  • South 24 July – 5 September 2021

Autumn holiday (herfstvakantie)

  • North and Center 16 – 24 October 2021
  • South 23 – 31 October 2021

Christmas holiday (Kerstvakantie)

  • North, Center and South 25 December 2021 – 9 January 2022

Free calendar to download

And finally, I’ve created a simple calendar to keep up with all the appointments (and holidays!) of 2021. I like a simple and neat basis where notes have their own space.
Public holidays are already noted for you…feel free to personalize it, or keep it simple! Here below you can have a sneak peek, while the download form is below the picture.

Just fill in your name and email address, the free calendar will directly jump in your mailbox.

    Best wishes for a great 2021 from the Dutchgram’s team!

    Featured picture: Estée Janssens on Unsplash. Disclaimer.

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