Public holidays in South Korea, 2021

How South Korea public holidays work in 2021

South Korea observes fifteen designated public holidays under the Act on Public Holidays for Public Institutions, expanded in 2021 to apply the same calendar to private workplaces with five or more employees. The list mixes civic dates (Independence Movement Day on 1 March, Liberation Day on 15 August, National Foundation Day on 3 October, Hangul Day on 9 October) with lunar holidays (Seollal Korean New Year and Chuseok harvest festival, each three days) and Buddha's Birthday by the lunar calendar. The substitute holiday system introduced in 2014 and broadened in 2021 grants a make-up weekday whenever Seollal, Chuseok or several other holidays fall on a Sunday or Saturday.

Working days in South Korea

Korean Labour Standards Act article 50 sets a 40-hour, five-day working week with a 52-hour cap including overtime since 2018. The standard private-sector week is Monday to Friday with banks operating Monday to Friday. The Civil Procedure Act article 170 rolls statutory deadlines falling on a Sunday or public holiday to the next working day; Saturdays are also excluded by 2003 amendment. Settlement of Korean won transactions runs on the Bank of Korea's BOK-Wire+ high-value system, which observes the full fifteen-day public holiday list, and on the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute's domestic systems.

For people planning cross-border meetings, the practical move is to overlay South Korea's calendar with the calendars of the other countries on your team. A week that looks completely clear from your end might be a national holiday on theirs. The compare tool above pairs two country calendars and highlights the overlapping closures, so you can spot the weeks where almost no one is at their desk before you put a launch on the board.