Public holidays and time off in Norway: red days, fellesferie and holiday pay

Which days are red – and which are not

The Public Holidays Act (helligdagsfredloven) lists the red days: every Sunday, New Year’s Day, Maundy Thursday (skjærtorsdag), Good Friday (langfredag), Easter Sunday and Monday, Ascension Day (Kristi himmelfartsdag), Whit Sunday and Monday (pinse), and Christmas Day and Boxing Day. A separate law from 1947 adds two «høytidsdager»: 1 May, Labour Day, and 17 May, Constitution Day. In practice they all work the same way: no school, and most workplaces are closed.

Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are not public holidays, although many people finish early – in the municipalities, for example, the collective agreement lets day workers go home at 12:00 on those days and on the Wednesday before Easter. And Norway never moves a holiday that falls on a weekend: if Christmas Day is a Saturday, it is simply lost.

With a monthly salary, red days do not change your pay. If you are paid by the hour, the law only guarantees pay for 1 and 17 May (when the day does not fall on a Sunday or another red day and you have been employed for the last 30 days), plus a supplement if you have to work – at least 50 per cent unless an agreement says otherwise. Everything else depends on your tariffavtale or contract.

Why Easter moves – and drags the rest along

Christmas and the two May days are fixed, but Easter follows the moon. By law, Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March, so it can fall anywhere from 22 March to 25 April.

The other movable days are counted from Easter Sunday. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday come just before it, Easter Monday the day after. Ascension Day is always a Thursday, 39 days after Easter Sunday, and Whit Sunday comes seven weeks after Easter, followed by Whit Monday. When Easter is late, Ascension and Whitsun slide into late May or June. When it is early, as in 2027, Whit Monday even lands on 17 May.

The red days in 2027

2027 is a stingy year: 1 May is a Saturday, Christmas falls on a weekend, and Whit Monday is the same day as 17 May. Only six red days fall on a weekday.

New Year’s Day – Friday 1 January
Maundy Thursday – Thursday 25 March
Good Friday – Friday 26 March
Easter Sunday – Sunday 28 March
Easter Monday – Monday 29 March
Labour Day – Saturday 1 May
Ascension Day – Thursday 6 May
Whit Sunday – Sunday 16 May
Whit Monday and Constitution Day – Monday 17 May
Christmas Day – Saturday 25 December
Boxing Day – Sunday 26 December

Not red, but useful to know: Christmas Eve is Friday 24 December, New Year’s Eve is Friday 31 December, and fellesferie is usually weeks 28–30, from 12 to 30 July.

Shops, Vinmonopolet and buses on red days

On red days shops must stay closed, and on Christmas Eve, Easter Saturday and Whitsun Eve they close at 16:00. The exceptions are small grocery shops with up to 100 square metres of sales area, petrol stations up to 150 square metres, garden centres and approved tourist areas. That is why the little Joker on the corner may be open on Easter Monday while the big supermarket is dark. Before Christmas all shops may open on the last three Sundays, from 14:00 to 20:00.

Vinmonopolet is closed on Sundays, red days, 1 and 17 May and Christmas Eve, and closes by 16:00 at the latest on Saturdays and the day before a red day. Supermarkets may sell beer until 20:00 at the latest on weekdays and 18:00 before Sundays and red days, and not at all on Sundays, red days or 1 and 17 May. The day before Ascension Day counts as an ordinary weekday.

Buses and trains run Sunday timetables on red days, and on Christmas Eve many routes stop in the late afternoon – check Ruter, Skyss, AtB or Entur before you go visiting. If you fall ill, the out-of-hours doctor (legevakt) answers on 116 117 around the clock.

Inneklemte dager – the squeezed-in days

An inneklemt dag is a working day squeezed between a red day and a weekend. The classic is the Friday after Ascension Day – 7 May in 2027, when all schools in Oslo are closed too. Many people also take the three working days before Easter off: in 2027, leave from 22 to 24 March gives you ten days off in a row.

Most people use holiday days; others take time off in lieu of overtime (avspasering), use flexitime or take unpaid leave. Some companies close on the squeezed-in day and ask everyone to use a holiday day. That is allowed, because the employer sets the timing of holiday after discussing it with you. Ask early – colleagues with school-age children want the same days.

Ferieloven and fellesferie in July

The Holidays Act (ferieloven) gives you 25 virkedager of holiday a year. Saturdays count as virkedager, so that means four weeks and one day; many collective agreements add a fifth week. You can demand three weeks (18 virkedager) in a row between 1 June and 30 September, and you can demand to be told when your holiday is at least two months in advance. Up to 12 days can be carried over to next year if you agree in writing. If you turn 60 during the year, you get an extra week.

In practice July is the holiday month. Many factories, building sites and offices close for fellesferie, usually weeks 28–30. Tradesmen stop answering, out-of-office replies say «tilbake i uke 31», and towns feel half empty. If you start a new job by 30 September, you have the right to full holiday that year; if you start later, you get six days.

Feriepenger – and the June surprise

You do not get your ordinary salary while on holiday. Instead you get feriepenger, holiday pay earned the year before: by law at least 10.2 per cent of last year’s pay, usually 12 per cent with a fifth week, and 2.3 percentage points more from the age of 60. It is paid on the last regular payday before the holiday, and most employers pay it in June.

On top of that, no tax is deducted from your salary in June, and usually only half in December. The tax does not disappear – it is spread over the other months – but many people feel rich in June and broke in August.

The trap for newcomers: in your first year in Norway you may take holiday, but you have earned little or no feriepenger, so the time off can be unpaid. If you change jobs, your old employer must pay out the holiday pay you have earned.