Korea Public Holidays 2026–2027: Full 2027 List With 7 Substitute Days, Seollal and Chuseok Dates, What Closes, and a Long-Weekend Finder

Korea has 13 public holidays in 2027 and 7 of them spill onto a Monday or Tuesday as substitute days, which makes 2027 a good year for long weekends: Seollal runs four days (Feb 6–9), and August, October (twice) and December each get a three-day weekend. Two holidays are new since 2026 — Labor Day on May 1 and Constitution Day on July 17 — and one thing many calendars still get wrong: there is no presidential election in 2027. The last one was held early, on June 3, 2025, and the next is due in 2030. The finder below lists holidays and long weekends for any range in 2026–2027; the tables and the "what closes" section follow.

Remaining 2026 holidays

Holiday	Date	Day	Substitute
Chuseok	2026-09-24 ~ 2026-09-26	Thu–Sat (no substitute for Sat)	—
National Foundation Day	2026-10-03	Sat → substitute Mon 2026-10-05	Mon 2026-10-05
Hangeul Day	2026-10-09	Fri	—
Christmas	2026-12-25	Fri	—

Chuseok 2026 falls Thursday to Saturday, and because Seollal and Chuseok are substituted only for a Sunday or another holiday — not for a Saturday — there is no extra day: the break is Sep 24–27 including the Sunday. National Foundation Day on Saturday, Oct 3, does move, to Monday, Oct 5, the only remaining substitute day of 2026. The local elections of June 3, 2026 have passed. Since May 2026, Labor Day (May 1) and Constitution Day (July 17) are public holidays with substitute rules, under Presidential Decree 36290 (Money Today).

2027 public holidays

Weekdays below are computed from the calendar (Jan 1, 2027 is a Friday) and match the Korea AeroSpace Administration's official calendar notice (KASA):

Holiday	Date(s)	Day	Substitute
New Year's Day	2027-01-01	Fri	—
Seollal	2027-02-06 ~ 2027-02-08	Sat–Mon	substitute Tue 2027-02-09
Independence Movement Day	2027-03-01	Mon	—
Labor Day	2027-05-01	Sat	substitute Mon 2027-05-03
Children's Day	2027-05-05	Wed	—
Buddha's Birthday	2027-05-13	Thu	—
Memorial Day	2027-06-06	Sun	no substitute
Constitution Day	2027-07-17	Sat	substitute Mon 2027-07-19
Liberation Day	2027-08-15	Sun	substitute Mon 2027-08-16
Chuseok	2027-09-14 ~ 2027-09-16	Tue–Thu	—
National Foundation Day	2027-10-03	Sun	substitute Mon 2027-10-04
Hangeul Day	2027-10-09	Sat	substitute Mon 2027-10-11
Christmas	2027-12-25	Sat	substitute Mon 2027-12-27

That is 13 holidays, 7 substitute days (Feb 9, May 3, Jul 19, Aug 16, Oct 4, Oct 11, Dec 27) and, by KASA's count, 10 breaks of three days or more. Buddha's Birthday is May 13 (one bank's summary printed May 15; the lunar date falls on the Thursday). Memorial Day on Sunday, June 6 is lost, because it and New Year's Day are the two holidays never substituted. The four-day Seollal (Sat Feb 6 – Tue Feb 9) and Chuseok (Tue Sep 14 – Thu Sep 16, which becomes nine days with Monday and Friday off) are the two travel peaks; book anything domestic for those weeks early.

The substitute-holiday rules

1. Seollal and Chuseok (three days each) get a substitute day only when one of the three days is a Sunday or another public holiday. A Saturday does not trigger one. The substitute is the first non-holiday day after the break.
2. All other holidays — Independence Movement Day, Children's Day, Buddha's Birthday, Labor Day, Constitution Day, Liberation Day, National Foundation Day, Hangeul Day, Christmas — move to the next non-holiday weekday when they fall on a Saturday, Sunday or another holiday.
3. New Year's Day and Memorial Day are never substituted.
4. Election days are one-off holidays declared for that year; there is none in 2027. The next presidential election is due in 2030, and the next general election in spring 2028 (exact date to be set).

What closes, what opens

Place	Ordinary public holiday	Seollal / Chuseok (the day and its neighbors)
Banks, government offices, immigration, post offices, courts, stock market	Closed	Closed for the full break
Large hospitals	Outpatient clinics closed; emergency rooms open	Same; cities publish on-duty clinic and pharmacy lists (e-gen portal, phone 129)
Neighborhood clinics and pharmacies	Mostly open on single holidays	Most close 2–4 days; look for the on-duty pharmacy list
Convenience stores	Open	Open
Department stores, hypermarkets	Open	Closed on the holiday itself and often one neighboring day
Restaurants, cafés	Mostly open	Chains open; family-run places often close 2–3 days
Parcel delivery, courier	Runs on single holidays with delays	Pauses for the break; order a week early
Subway, buses, KTX	Normal timetable	Normal, with trains sold out weeks ahead
Palaces, museums	Open (many are free on holidays)	The four main palaces open free on the Chuseok and Seollal days; the National Museum of Korea and MMCA Seoul close on the holiday itself

Money matters on a holiday: ATMs and app transfers work, but anything that needs a branch waits for the next business day — the bank account guide covers what needs a counter. Immigration offices are closed, so check a visa deadline that falls on a long weekend against the residence card guide in advance.

Traveling at Seollal and Chuseok

Train tickets for the two big holidays go on sale about 3 weeks before, by line, over several mornings — for Chuseok 2026 the general sale ran Sep 7 (conventional trains), Sep 8, Sep 9 (Honam and Jeolla lines), Sep 10 (Suseo departures) and Sep 11 (Gyeongbu line), 07:00–13:00, after an earlier window for seniors and disabled passengers. Since the Korail–SR merger on Sep 1, 2026, KTX and SRT are sold in one app, 코레일 플러스 (Korail Plus), released Aug 3, 2026, and high-speed fares fell by around 10%: Seoul–Busan KTX is now ₩54,400 (from ₩59,800) (Financial News). Expressway tolls are waived on the holiday days (Sep 24–27 for Chuseok 2026), which is why the roads are worse than the trains. The four main palaces, Jongmyo shrine and the royal tombs open free on the holiday days, and anyone in hanbok enters the palaces free year-round. Since April 1, 2026, Culture Day, 문화가 있는 날 (Munhwaga Inneun Nal), runs every Wednesday rather than the last Wednesday of the month, with discounted museum, gallery and performance entry; cinema discounts apply on the second and last Wednesday evenings. The Busan itinerary and the regional cities guide are the places to spend a long weekend once the trains are booked.

Calculation logic

1. The finder expands each entry in the data — a single date or a "from ~ to" range — into holiday days, and reads any substitute date from the note field.
2. A day is "off" if it is a Saturday, a Sunday, a holiday or a substitute day. Runs of consecutive off days that include at least one holiday are listed; three or more days is a long weekend.
3. For each run it checks whether one day of leave on the working day just before or just after would join it to another run of off days, and shows the longer result.
4. "Next holiday" is the first holiday or substitute day on or after the start date.

Mistakes people make

• Planning around a 2027 presidential election. There is none; it was held on June 3, 2025.
• Expecting a substitute day for a Saturday Chuseok. Seollal and Chuseok only substitute for Sundays and holiday overlaps.
• Booking holiday trains a month ahead. Sales open about three weeks out and sell out within the hour; know the line's sale day.
• Assuming the pharmacy is open on Chuseok. Check the on-duty list; the pharmacy guide covers what you can stock in advance.
• Ordering online the week before a big holiday. Delivery pauses for the break.

Next: the rooms Koreans rent by the hour — noraebang, PC bang, escape rooms — and what they cost in 2026: noraebang and PC bang guide.