The last quarter of the year has arrived, and it is time for reflection. Take stock of 2024 so far, think about what you still want to do by the 31st of December and, most importantly, start planning the new year. And what better way to plan for 2025 than to start with the holidays?
Well, get ready because a year is coming full of holidays and good opportunities for long weekends.
You'll be happy to hear that there will be five long weekends, three opportunities to create a "bridge," one optional holiday, and thirteen mandatory national holidays in 2025. In addition, there are regional and local holidays.
Which holidays fall on the calendar in 2025?
The first Wednesday of the year is a holiday this year, so most employees will only have two more days of work left before the weekend. This is because the year begins on a Wednesday.
After that, we will have to wait until the middle of April to enjoy Good Friday as a new holiday. Here is a comprehensive list of all public holidays in Portugal (Mainland and Archipelagos) in 2025 to help you remember to write them down in your diary:
Mandatory national holidays
January 1: Wednesdays are used to celebrate New Year's Day.
April 18: The first long weekend of the year is Good Friday, which commemorates the death of Jesus Christ.
April 20th: Easter Sunday is a well-known festival, but for those who are more easily sidetracked, it marks the celebration of Christ's resurrection in our historically Christian nation.
April 25th: Freedom Day, also known as the Carnation Revolution, is a Friday that offers you still another chance to have a pleasant holiday.
May 1st: Next year, Labour Day will fall on a Thursday, so you can take a little holiday the following day.
June 10th: Portugal, Camões and Portuguese Communities Day. It will be on a Tuesday and also gives you a “bridge” the day before.
June 19th: it is Corpus Christi day, another Christian celebration that marks the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and is always celebrated on a Thursday.
August 15th: falls on a Friday and is celebrated as the Assumption of Our Lady.
October 5th: Next year's Republic Day will fall on a Sunday, which means that, unfortunately, the vast majority of us won't get much out of it. But it is always an important date in our country's history to remember.
November 1st: another holiday that will not be very fruitful, All Saints' Day, as it falls on a Saturday.
December 1st is Independence Restoration Day, which falls on a Monday. Since Mondays evoke the least amount of sympathy among all of us, they are among the ideal days to be a holiday.
December 8th: Mondays are also used to commemorate the Immaculate Conception.
December 25th: Christmas Day is the final holiday of the year and, as usual, it doesn't need an introduction. Next year, the day of Jesus Christ's birth will fall on a Wednesday.
Optional Holiday Day
March 4th: Carnival Tuesday, like it is every year, is an optional holiday since it is not regarded as an official holiday. You have a great chance to make the first 'bridge' of the year and, who knows, travel to Rio de Janeiro or Venice to celebrate Carnival if your employer decides to grant you this day.
Local holidays
Since there are too many municipal holidays to include them all here, we have chosen to highlight the holidays in June, when most municipalities observe their own holidays, and it is appropriate to honour well-known saints.
June 13: Saint Anthony's Day is observed outside of Lisbon as well. On that day, other municipalities, including Cascais, Vila Real, Vila Nova de Famalicão, and Aljustrel, also observe their municipal holidays. It falls on a Friday in 2025.
June 24: several municipalities, including Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Braga, Figueira da Foz, Almada, Tavira, and Castro Marim, will mark Saint John's Day and their municipal holidays on this Tuesday.
June 29: Because Saint Peter's Day falls on a Sunday, the 2025 municipal holiday for the people of Póvoa de Varzim, Sintra, Montijo, Seixal, Évora, and many other municipalities does not go smoothly at all.
Local holidays in Madeira and the Azores
The Autonomous Regions were not to be overlooked. We start by highlighting 12 holidays in the Azores:
Lagos, April 11.
Candles on April 23.
Ponta Delgada on May 26.
20 June (Corvo).
June 24th (Angra do Heroísmo, Horta, Vila do Porto, and Vila Franca do Campo).
Lajes do Pico and Ribeira Grande on June 29.
Northeastern July 18.
Lajes das Flores on July 21.
Magdalena, July 22.
Praia da Vitória, August 11.
São Roque do Pico on August 16.
Calheta, November 25th.
The following holidays are observed in the Madeira Archipelago:
Santa Cruz, January 15.
19 January (São Vicente).
Machico, May 8.
Santana, May 25.
June 24th (Porto Santo and Calheta).
Rio de Janeiro, June 29.
Region Day, which falls on July 1st.
Porto Moniz, July 22. • Funchal, August 21st.
The eighth of September (Ponta do Sol). The fourth of October (Câmara de Lobos)
December 26th (October 1st, regional).
How may 2025 holidays be maximised?
We have the creativity and adaptability to begin organising our next trip when it comes to holidays. See how you may take advantage of these days by taking a peek today.
Extended weekends
Easter, which falls between Friday, April 18, and Sunday, April 20, will be the first holiday of 2025. Use these days to visit and celebrate the season with your family if they live far away.
In April, there is another weekend from Friday, the 25th, to Sunday, the 27th. The weather is already beckoning us to spend a few days in nature, even though it isn't quite hot enough for us to simply go to the beach. Look at Portugal's (or the world's) map and decide where to go in the spring.
You will have the wonderful opportunity to enjoy these three days (June 13–15) in an area that invites you to swim, as the heat is already inviting, if you are fortunate enough to work in one of those municipalities that celebrates its municipal holiday on Friday, June 13.
You will have another long weekend from Friday, August 15, to Sunday, August 17. The good news is that you will save one working day if you take a vacation during the first part of August. Next are the long weekends in December, which run from Saturday, November 29, to Monday, December 1, and from Saturday, December 6, to Monday, December 8. The best time to travel to a European city to see the traditional Christmas markets or to the snow.
"Bridges"
When it comes to the so-called “bridges”, you may be lucky enough to make the first one on March 3rd (Monday), if you are entitled to a holiday on Carnival Day. In this case, you will enjoy a 4-day weekend, between March 1st and 4th.
During the May Day holiday you will have the opportunity to take the 2nd (Friday) off and thus enjoy a mini-vacation until the following Sunday, May 4th.
Just over a month later, you will also be able to take the 9th of June (Monday) before the Portugal Day holiday. And in the same month, thanks to the Corpus Christi holiday on the 19th, you will be able to “bridge” on Friday, the 20th.
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