Insights

Vietnam Public Holidays 2026–2027: 12 Days & Pay

By Nguyễn Quốc Trung — Deputy General Director · Updated 2026-10-12

In 2026, employees in Vietnam are entitled to 12 paid public holidays: 11 days under Article 112(1) of the 2019 Labour Code (No. 45/2019/QH14), plus 24 November — Vietnam Culture Day — under Article 2(1) of Resolution No. 28/2026/QH16, in force from 1 July 2026. Foreign employees are entitled to 14 days. This article is written for directors, HR and payroll staff who need to fix the holiday calendar, calculate holiday pay and the number of working days in a month; it reflects the rules in force up to September 2026.

Updated 12 October 2026: the Government has confirmed the 2027 Tet and National Day holidays (Letter No. 10065/VPCP-KGVX of 2 October 2026); added the official Tet 2027 schedule, the three options for businesses and the Gregorian date of Tet 2027.

How many paid public holidays does Vietnam have in 2026?

Employees in Vietnam have 12 paid public holidays in 2026. Eleven of them are statutory holidays under Article 112(1) of the 2019 Labour Code — New Year's Day (1 day), Lunar New Year, or Tet (5 days), Hung Kings' Commemoration Day (1 day), Reunification Day on 30 April and International Labour Day on 1 May (1 day each), and National Day (2 days) — plus 24 November under Resolution No. 28/2026/QH16. Foreign employees get 2 extra days, for a total of 14.

Paid public holidays should not be confused with Tet-season bonuses: whether they are mandatory, and how insurance and tax apply to 13th-month pay and Tet bonuses in 2026, are covered separately. Public holidays also differ from annual leave — annual leave is set by Article 113 of the 2019 Labour Code and increases with seniority, rather than falling on fixed dates each year.

Is Vietnam Culture Day on 24 November an official public holiday?

Yes. From 1 July 2026, 24 November each year is Vietnam Culture Day, and employees are entitled to a paid day off under Article 2(1) of Resolution No. 28/2026/QH16. This is a standalone resolution that does not amend Article 112 of the 2019 Labour Code, which is why many older benefit tables still show 11 holidays.

Resolution No. 28/2026/QH16 was passed at the first session of the 16th National Assembly and states: "24 November each year is Vietnam Culture Day; employees are entitled to a day off with full pay." Because it takes effect from 1 July 2026, 24 November 2026 is the first time employees enjoy this day off. In 2026, employees have 1 day off on Tuesday 24 November, with no make-up day, because this date is not listed in Article 112(1) of the 2019 Labour Code.

Does Vietnam have 11 or 12 public holidays — and why do some sources say 26?

The correct figure for 2026 is 12 paid public holidays: 11 statutory days under Article 112(1) of the 2019 Labour Code plus 1 day, 24 November, under Resolution No. 28/2026/QH16. The "11 days" figure applied before 1 July 2026 and is still copied by many summary tables. The "26 days" figure that some tables give comes from adding adjacent weekend days to the longer breaks, which produces a larger run of consecutive days off — it is not the number of statutory paid public holidays.

For a labour inspection or a timesheet, only 12 days for Vietnamese employees and 14 days for foreign employees count as statutory paid public holidays; the added weekend days depend on each year's working calendar and are not fixed.

If a public holiday falls on a weekly rest day, is there a make-up day off?

Yes, but only for the holidays listed in Article 112(1) of the 2019 Labour Code: if a holiday coincides with a weekly rest day, the employee takes a make-up day off on the next working day, under Article 111(3). Because 24 November sits in Resolution No. 28/2026/QH16 and not in Article 112(1), this statutory make-up rule does not apply to it.

Article 111(3) provides: "If a weekly rest day coincides with a public holiday under Article 112(1) of this Code, the employee takes the weekly rest day off on the next working day." For example, in 2026 Hung Kings' Commemoration Day (10th day of the 3rd lunar month) falls on Sunday 26 April 2026, so workplaces that rest on Saturday and Sunday take a make-up day on Monday 27 April. 24 November 2026, however, falls on a Tuesday, so no make-up day arises this year.

How many extra public holidays do foreign employees get?

Two extra days, not one. Under Article 112(2) of the 2019 Labour Code, foreign employees working in Vietnam get one additional day for their nation's traditional New Year and one additional day for their country's national day, on top of the days in paragraph 1. Including 24 November, foreign employees in Vietnam have 14 paid public holidays in 2026.

Article 112(2) reads in full: "In addition to the days off under paragraph 1 of this Article, a foreign employee working in Vietnam is entitled to one more day for their nation's traditional New Year and one more day for their country's national day." A business with foreign employees should record these two days by each person's nationality when drawing up the holiday calendar.

How does adding 24 November affect the number of working days in the month?

Each public holiday is a paid day off: the employee does not come to work but is still paid in full, so for a monthly-salaried worker the holiday is already contained in the monthly salary and is not itemised separately. When a holiday falls on a working day, the number of days the employee actually has to be present that month drops accordingly; 24 November 2026 is a Tuesday — a working day — so November 2026 has one more public holiday than before.

The number of standard working days in each month depends on each company's own working calendar — for instance, resting on both Saturday and Sunday, or on Sunday only. The safe method is to take the days from the company's working calendar and subtract the holidays in the table above that fall on working days, rather than applying a single fixed annual figure.

What is the 2026 holiday calendar and the expected 2027 Tet schedule?

In 2026 there are seven holiday periods, running from New Year's Day on 1 January to Vietnam Culture Day on 24 November, as listed in the table at the start of this article. Day 1 of Tet in the Year of the Horse falls on 17 February 2026, and Hung Kings' Commemoration Day (10th day of the 3rd lunar month) falls on Sunday 26 April 2026. The Lunar New Year days off and the day adjacent to National Day are set each year by the Prime Minister under Article 112(3) of the 2019 Labour Code.

Article 112(3) provides: "Each year, based on actual conditions, the Prime Minister decides the specific days off set out in points b and đ of paragraph 1 of this Article." However the specific schedule falls in a given year, the number of paid Lunar New Year days off for employees remains 5 days under point b of Article 112(1).

For Tet in the Year of the Goat 2027, day 1 of the lunar new year falls on Saturday 6 February 2027. On 2 October 2026 the Government confirmed the Tet 2027 holiday in Letter No. 10065/VPCP-KGVX; the official schedule and the three options for businesses are set out in the next section.

What is the official Tet 2027 holiday schedule in Vietnam?

For Tet in the Year of the Goat 2027, civil servants and public employees take 7 consecutive days off from Thursday 4 February 2027 to Wednesday 10 February 2027 (the 28th day of the 12th lunar month of the Year of the Horse to the 5th day of Tet), made up of 5 Tet days off and 2 weekly rest days, under Letter No. 10065/VPCP-KGVX of 2 October 2026 from the Government Office. Employees of businesses still get 5 paid Tet days off, and the employer chooses one of three options announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs:

• 1 day at the end of the Year of the Horse and 4 days at the start of the Year of the Goat.
• 2 days at the end of the Year of the Horse and 3 days at the start of the Year of the Goat.
• 3 days at the end of the Year of the Horse and 2 days at the start of the Year of the Goat.

Businesses should notify employees of their Tet schedule at least 30 days in advance. Any Tet day off that falls on a weekly rest day is made up on the next working day under Article 111(3) of the 2019 Labour Code, and anyone who has to work on a Tet day off is paid at least 300% of salary, not counting the holiday pay itself (Article 98(1)(c)). For National Day 2027, civil servants take 4 consecutive days off from Thursday 2 September to Sunday 5 September 2027.

When is Tet 2027?

Day 1 of Tet, the Lunar New Year of the Year of the Goat, falls on Saturday 6 February 2027; New Year's Eve is the night of Friday 5 February 2027, the 29th day of the 12th lunar month, because the last lunar month of the Year of the Horse has only 29 days. In 2026, day 1 of Tet fell on Tuesday 17 February, so Tet 2027 comes about 11 days earlier in the Gregorian calendar.

For businesses, this date shapes the January and February 2027 payroll cycles: Tet bonuses, the 13th-month salary and often January pay are usually paid before the break, so timesheets and cash planning should be closed before the first Tet day off under the option the business chooses.

How does Nhan Kiet arrange and pay for holiday shifts for clients?

Nhan Kiet — Nhan Kiet Manpower Supply Co., Ltd, in operation since 2009 and holding labour sub-leasing Licence No. 15/2019/SHCM (first issued as No. 029/LĐTBXH in 2015) — signs employment contracts directly with workers, records attendance by each client's actual shifts, and pays holiday wages in full plus at least 300% for holiday overtime under point c, Article 98(1) of the 2019 Labour Code.

For factories, retail chains or vehicle fleets that need to run shifts during holidays, Nhan Kiet arranges the shifts, tracks the statutory overtime caps, files personal income tax and submits labour reports on time; for foreign employees, it applies their right to 2 extra days correctly. A business can transfer the full employer responsibility to Nhan Kiet through labour compliance services, use seasonal manpower supply for factories when it needs extra people at peak times, or choose payroll outsourcing so that Nhan Kiet computes holiday wages and overtime in full.

Sources

• 2019 Labour Code (No. 45/2019/QH14) — Article 98(1)(c) (holiday work at least 300%), Article 111(3) (make-up day off), Article 112(1), (2), (3) (11 holidays; foreign employees get 2 extra days); in force from 1 January 2021
• Resolution No. 28/2026/QH16 on the development of Vietnamese culture — Article 2(1) (24 November is Vietnam Culture Day, employees take a paid day off); in force from 1 July 2026
• Letter No. 10065/VPCP-KGVX of 2 October 2026 from the Government Office — holidays for Vietnam Culture Day on 24 November 2026, Tet 2027 (4–10 February 2027) and National Day 2027 (2–5 September 2027)

This article summarises the rules for orientation; specific situations need individual advice.

Contact us

Businesses that need to arrange holiday shifts and pay employees in full for days off and overtime can contact:

• Nguyen Quoc Trung — Deputy General Director
• Phone: 0908 636 108 — [email protected]
• Switchboard: 028 3505 4224
• Head office: Room 202, Building 57, 57 Le Thi Hong Gam, Ben Thanh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City

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