Public Holidays in Brazil in 2027

Nine fixed dates, three laws

There is no single Brazilian holidays act. The list is assembled from three:

Law 662/1949, in its 2002 wording, gives seven dates: January 1, April 21, May 1, September 7, November 2, November 15 and December 25. Law 6,802/1980 adds October 12 on its own. And Law 14,759, sanctioned on December 21 2023 and effective on publication the following day, added November 20 — so Brazil's newest national holiday is younger than three years.

⚠️ One trap for anyone checking the source. The Planalto page for Law 662 shows two "Article 1" blocks, and the summary line at the top of the page was never updated — it still lists only five dates. Copy the summary instead of the article and you lose April 21 and November 2.

Carnival is not a national holiday

This is the part that surprises people, including Brazilians.

The federal government publishes an annual ordinance setting what public offices observe. In it, the two Carnival days appear explicitly as ponto facultativo — optional leave — and so does Corpus Christi. In the same numbered list, Christmas appears as national holiday. It is not silence in the document: it is the opposite label, in the same provision.

Carnival and Corpus Christi are also absent from all three federal laws above. Corpus Christi in particular is a municipal religious holiday that most municipalities declare — the mechanism federal law provides for is up to four religious holidays per municipality, declared by municipal law.

There is a genuine inconsistency worth knowing, because it will confuse you if you go looking: Good Friday is called a national holiday in that same federal ordinance, while no federal law declares it one. The administration is not coherent on this date, and we did not find a document that resolves it.

What actually closes, which is a different question

Three separate layers, and mixing them is where planning goes wrong.

Banks. A central bank rule — Resolution CMN 4,880/2020 — removes Carnival Monday and Tuesday and Corpus Christi from the count of business days for the financial market. That is why the banks are shut on days that are not holidays. ⚠️ The rule most quoted on the Brazilian internet for this, Resolution 1,774/1990, has been dead since 1998 through a chain of five successive revocations, and it closed banks on Maundy Thursday too — a day on which they now open.

Branch hours. For commercial banks, multiple banks with a commercial portfolio and the Caixa, the standard is a minimum service window in the middle of the day rather than a full day. And there are two half-days that are not holidays at all: Ash Wednesday and December 24, when a branch may open on a reduced schedule.

Shops. This changed six weeks ago. A Ministry of Labour ordinance from July 2026 replaced the previous one and sets a closed list of activities permitted to open on holidays — pharmacy, bakery, restaurant, hotel, filling station, hairdresser, street market among them. Supermarkets are outside that list, and whether a shopping centre opens depends on the local collective agreement, not on federal rule.

Federal offices. A federal office is not permitted to close for an ordinary state holiday or for local optional leave. It does close on the municipal religious holidays that federal law allows. So the counter you need may be open on precisely the day the city around it has stopped.

The 2027 calendar

The movable dates follow Easter, which in 2027 falls on March 28. We confirmed the dates two independent ways: the published table used for bank holidays, and our own computus calculation.

For a visitor, 2027 is an awkward year: of the thirteen dates on the bank calendar, three fall on a Saturday — May 1, November 20 and December 25 — which means no weekday is displaced and no long weekend forms around them. Four land on a Tuesday, two on a Monday, two on a Friday.

⚠️ We cannot tell you the 2027 optional-leave days yet. That ordinance is published near the end of the preceding year and does not exist at the time of writing — anyone publishing a 2027 list of pontos facultativos today is copying the 2026 document.

State and municipal days, which are the ones that catch you

Federal law caps what the lower levels may declare, and the caps are narrow.

A state may have one civil holiday — the date of greatest significance to it. A municipality may have its founding anniversary as a civil holiday, plus the two days opening and closing the year of its founding centenary, plus up to four religious holidays declared by municipal law.

That four-holiday ceiling is the mechanism behind most "why is everything shut today?" moments, and São Paulo uses all four. There is no national list of these: the only reliable source is the municipality where you are standing.

None of this affects the practical questions that sit next to it — whether the tap water is drinkable, what voltage the sockets carry, or the plug shape. But a closed day does affect money: getting cash without a local card and which ATM to use matter more when the branch is shut, and PIX runs on holidays because it is not a bank counter. If a holiday lands on your arrival, the ride in from the airport and the metro run on their own schedules, and whether you need a visa is settled long before any of it.

Sources

• Law 662/1949 — the seven fixed civil holidays in the 2002 wording, the limit on what may operate, and the two stacked "Article 1" blocks. Accessed September 3, 2026.
• Law 6,802/1980 — October 12 as a national holiday by its own statute. Accessed September 3, 2026.
• Law 14,759/2023 — November 20, sanctioned December 21 2023. Accessed September 3, 2026.
• Law 9,093/1995 — what states and municipalities may declare, and the ceiling of four religious holidays per municipality. Accessed September 3, 2026.
• Ordinance MGI 11,460/2025 — the federal calendar classifying Carnival and Corpus Christi as optional leave. Accessed September 3, 2026.
• Resolution CMN 4,880/2020 — business days for the financial market, and branch hours. Accessed September 3, 2026.
• ANBIMA 2027 bank-holiday table — the movable dates. Accessed September 3, 2026.

What we could not verify

• The 2027 optional-leave days. The ordinance that sets them is published toward the end of the preceding year and does not yet exist. We confirmed its absence rather than assuming it.
• Why the federal ordinance calls Good Friday a national holiday when no federal law does. The inconsistency is in the published document; no source we found reconciles it.
• Which municipalities use their full allowance of four religious holidays, and on what dates. There is no national register, and the caps are set city by city.
• Whether a specific shopping centre or supermarket opens on a given holiday. The July 2026 ordinance leaves that to local collective agreement, which varies by city and by year.