Portugal has 13 public / national holidays spread out during the year. The majority of the public / national holidays are to celebrated religious feast days, the older Portuguese generation are deeply religious and will attend the church on these feast days. The public holiday occurs only on the day stated, if it falls over the weekend the workers loose out and the young complain.

The public holidays are similar to other European countries meaning that all government departments, banks, offices and most shops will be shut. During the summer months the big cities empty with everyone heading to the beach. In Lisbon the larger shopping centres will remain open, there may be a slightly reduced bus, metro and train service but most tourists would not notice any difference. In the small towns and villages the slow pace of life will be even slower.

 

The following table list all of the public and national holidays in Portugal:

 

Date of National Holiday	English Name (Portuguese Name)	Reason For Public / National Holiday
1st January	New Year (Ano Novo)	First day of the new year
Varies	Shove Tuesday	Pan - cake day!
Varies	Good Friday	Day of mourning for all catholics
25th April	Dia da Liberdade (Liberation day)	Remembrance of 1974 revolution
1st May	Labour Day (Dia do Trabalho)	The workers day - labour and communist marches
10th June	National day (Dia de Portugal)	Portugal national celebration day
During June	Corpus Christi	Important religions festival - marches in Lisbon

15thAugust	Feast of the Assumption (assuncao de nossa senhora)	Important religious holiday where the young of lisbon go to the beach
5th October	Republic day (Dia da Republica)	Celebrates the founding of the republic in 1910
1st November	All saints (Festa de Todossos Santos)	Day to recover from the halloween parties
1st December	Restoration day (Dia de Restauracao)	Celebrating the restoration of the Portuguese royal family in 1640
8th December	Immaculate conception	Important religious feast day.
25th December	Christmas (Natal)	Everything is shut for Christmas

 

There are no national holidays for portugal's Popular Saints (Anthony, John and Peter) but because of the relative closeness of the dates they are combined into one giant week long party, see Popular Saint Section. Peter's feast day is on 28June, John's 23 June and Anthony on the 12 June.