Malta has fourteen public holidays, more than almost anywhere in Europe. Five are national days marking points in Maltese history and the other nine are religious feasts. They are set in law rather than by custom.
On each one the banks, government offices and most shops close, and the buses run to a Sunday timetable.
What a public holiday means here
Banks, offices and most shops
Supermarkets and pharmacies often open for part of the day, and restaurants in the tourist areas mostly carry on as normal.
Buses run a Sunday timetable, which is thinner and finishes earlier than you may be expecting.
Bus timetables
Good Friday and Christmas Day
Good Friday is observed seriously across the islands, with processions in almost every town and a subdued atmosphere. Many restaurants close.
Christmas Day is similar. If you are here for either, plan food and travel in advance rather than on the day.
Holy Week
The national days
Sette Giugno in June, Victory Day in September and Independence Day in September all carry ceremonies. The Grand Harbour regatta runs on Freedom Day in March and on Victory Day in September.
Feast days like St Paul’s Shipwreck in February centre on a specific church and are worth attending for the procession alone.
Annual events
Fixed dates
- 1 January
- New Year’s Day
- 10 February
- Feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck. Malta dates its Christianity to this event in AD 60, and Valletta’s St Paul’s Shipwreck church is the centre of it.
- 19 March
- Feast of St Joseph
- 31 March
- Freedom Day. The departure of the last British forces in 1979.
- 1 May
- Worker’s Day
- 7 June
- Sette Giugno. Commemorates the 1919 riots and the four men killed.
- 29 June
- Feast of St Peter and St Paul, known as l-Imnarja (the summer harvest festival). An agricultural festival with roots older than the church attached to it, centred on Buskett.
- 15 August
- Feast of the Assumption, Santa Marija. The biggest religious day of the Maltese summer, and the one that empties the offices for a week around it.
- 8 September
- Victory Day. Marks the end of the Great Siege of 1565 and the 1943 surrender of Italy. Includes the traditional regatta in the Grand Harbour.
- 21 September
- Independence Day, 1964.
- 8 December
- Feast of the Immaculate Conception
- 13 December
- Republic Day, 1974.
- 25 December
- Christmas Day
The movable one
- Good Friday
- The only public holiday whose date moves. It is a solemn day rather than a festive one. There is no music, and many towns hold processions with life-size statues. The atmosphere is very different from the rest of the calendar.
What closes
Banks, government offices, post offices and schools close. Supermarkets and larger shops usually close, though convenience shops in tourist areas often do not. Restaurants and bars generally open, and in the case of a feast day are the busiest they will be all year. Buses run a Sunday service, which is thinner and worth checking before relying on it.
Good Friday is the exception to all of this. Much more closes, entertainment is subdued by custom, and the mood is different.
When a public holiday lands on a Saturday or Sunday, employees gain the equivalent hours as added leave rather than losing the day. Three fall at a weekend in 2026 (7 June, 15 August and 13 December), which adds 24 hours to the annual entitlement. The number changes every year with the calendar. The entitlement itself is set out by the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations, and is covered in more detail under working in Malta.