Official Public Holidays 2025 in Belgium

Business Belgium - Public holidays 2025

Written by Admin

18/10/2024

Below an overview of the official public holidays 2025, the regional public holidays 2025 in Belgium and a reminder of the rules applicable to replacement days for employers with employees in Belgium.

What are the Public Holidays 2025 in Belgium?Business Belgium - Holidays

  • New Year’s Day – Wednesday, 1 January 2025
  • Easter Monday – Monday, 21 April 2025
  • Labour Day – Thursday, 1 May 2025
  • Ascension Day – Thursday, 29 May 2025
  • Whit Monday – Monday, 9 June 2025
  • Belgian National Holiday – Monday, 21 July 2025
  • Assumption Day – Friday, 15 August 2025
  • All Saints’ Day – Saturday, 1 November 2025
  • Armistice Day – Tuesday, 11 November 2025
  • Christmas – Thursday, 25 December 2025


Applicable Rules
Public Holidays 2025 in Belgium

Business Belgium - Public Holidays

Like all countries, Belgium has also specific rules regarding public holidays.

If a public holiday lands on a Sunday or any other typical non-working day (commonly a Saturday), it should be substituted with a replacement day during a regular working day.

Nevertheless, the employer is required to pay the employee their regular salary for that holiday.

In the list provided above, the public holidays occurring on non-working days in 2025 have been highlighted in bold. Employees are entitled to one replacement day in 2025, specifically for All Saints’ Day (1 November).

 

Replacement Days Public Holidays 2025 Belgium

Business Belgium - Official holidayThe law of 4 January 1974 outlines how replacement days should be determined. Although the Joint Industrial Committee for each sector theoretically has the authority to decide when these days will fall, it is not commonly exercised in practice. If the Joint Industrial Committee does not make a decision by 1 October 2024, each company can independently determine the replacement days for its employees in 2025. Companies can choose to make this decision using one of the following methods:

  • By the Works Council;
  • If the company has no Works Council, by agreement between the union representatives and the employer;
  • If the company has a Works Council nor union representatives, by agreement between all the employees and the employer;
  • If no agreement can be reached for the whole company, individual agreements may be drawn up between the employer and each employee.

 

Regional Public Holidays

The Kingdom of Belgium is divided into three regions. The Regions have legislative and executive organs: these are known as the Regional Parliament and the Regional Government.

Consequently, there are some regional public holidays. These are the ‘official’ holidays of the federal states. It is important to remember that these holidays do not have the character of ‘paid public holidays’ so that the legislation relating to public holidays does not apply to them.

  • Flemish public holiday – 11 July
  • Public holiday of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (French Community) – 27 September
  • Public holiday of the German-speaking Community – 15 November
  • Feast day of the Walloon Region – third Sunday of September
  • Feast day of the Brussels-Capital Region – 8 May

 

Announcement to Employees

If replacement days cannot be decided upon using one of the solutions above, they automatically fall on the next normal working day following the public holiday (usually a Monday).

Employers must inform their employees of the replacement days for 2025 by displaying a signed and dated document on the company premises before 15 December 2024.

 

Other Holidays

In certain sectors or companies, such regional holidays are granted as ‘conventional’ or ‘extralegal’ holidays in certain cases. Specifically, this means that an extra free paid day is granted to employees.

In Belgium, full-time employees are generally entitled to 20 days of paid annual leave if they have worked a full year (based on a 5-day workweek).

This means that in total, a full-time employee in Belgium could expect around 30 paid days off per year (10 public holidays + 20 annual leave days), with the possibility of additional leave depending on the employer’s policies.

 

You want to know more

If you have questions or remarks, you can always contact us. Please use the contact sheet at the bottom of this page and we will com back to you.

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