Bulgaria Public Holidays 2027: Dates, Substitute Days Off and What They Cost in Payroll
Bulgaria has 13 public holiday dates in 2027, set by Art. 154 of the Labour Code. Nine fall on weekdays, and three more weekdays are off as substitutes for holidays that land on a weekend: 4 May, 27 December and 28 December. That leaves 249 working days. Staff who work on an official holiday must be paid at least double.
Current as of 15 October 2026. Dates follow Art. 154 of the Labour Code (text as of State Gazette No. 89 of 29 September 2026). Orthodox Easter in 2027 is on 2 May. The Council of Ministers may declare additional one-off days off; none has been announced for 2027 so far. General information, not legal advice.
What are the public holidays in Bulgaria in 2027?
| Date | Day | Holiday | Double pay if worked |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | Friday | New Year’s Day | Yes |
| 3 March | Wednesday | Liberation Day (national holiday) | Yes |
| 30 April | Friday | Orthodox Good Friday | Yes |
| 1 May | Saturday | Labour Day and Holy Saturday | Yes |
| 2 May | Sunday | Orthodox Easter Sunday | Yes |
| 3 May | Monday | Orthodox Easter Monday | Yes |
| 4 May | Tuesday | Substitute day off for 1 May | No |
| 6 May | Thursday | St George’s Day, Army Day | Yes |
| 24 May | Monday | Day of the Bulgarian Alphabet and Culture | Yes |
| 6 September | Monday | Unification Day | Yes |
| 22 September | Wednesday | Independence Day | Yes |
| 24 December | Friday | Christmas Eve | Yes |
| 25 December | Saturday | Christmas Day | Yes |
| 26 December | Sunday | Second day of Christmas | Yes |
| 27 and 28 December | Monday, Tuesday | Substitute days off for 25 and 26 December | No |
1 November, National Awakening Day, is a day off for schools only; for employers it is a normal working day.
Two things that surprise foreign managers
Easter is the Orthodox one. In 2027 Western Easter is on 28 March; Bulgaria celebrates on 2 May. Friday 26 March and Monday 29 March are ordinary working days in Sofia, while your Bulgarian team is off from Friday 30 April to Tuesday 4 May.
Weekend holidays roll forward automatically. There is no annual government decree swapping working days around holidays. Art. 154(2) does the job by law: when an official holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the next one or two working days are days off. Easter is the only exception, because it always falls on the same weekdays.
That exception produces an unusual result in 2027. Labour Day, 1 May, lands on Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday itself is not compensated, but Labour Day is. The next working day would be Monday 3 May, which is already Easter Monday, so the substitute day moves to Tuesday 4 May.
How many working days does each month have?
| Month | Working days | Month | Working days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20 | July | 22 |
| February | 20 | August | 22 |
| March | 22 | September | 20 |
| April | 21 | October | 21 |
| May | 17 | November | 22 |
| June | 22 | December | 20 |
The total is 249 working days, or 1,992 hours on an 8-hour day. May is the short month: 17 working days, 136 hours, roughly 80% of a normal month for billing and capacity planning.
What do holidays cost you as an employer?
Monthly salaries are not reduced
An employee on a monthly salary receives the full amount in a month with holidays. This matters for hourly rates: the same salary divided by 136 hours in May gives a much higher rate than in a 176-hour month, and overtime in May is priced on it.
Work on an official holiday is paid at least double
Under Art. 264 of the Labour Code, work on an official holiday is paid at no less than double the employee’s remuneration, whether or not it is overtime.
Example. A support agent earns €1,360 gross a month. May 2027 has 136 working hours, so the hourly rate is €10. An 8-hour rostered shift on 24 May costs €160 instead of €80: an extra €80 gross, plus employer social contributions on top of it.
If the holiday work is also overtime, Art. 262 adds a 100% supplement. The Ministry of Labour has taken the position that both rules apply together, giving four times the normal rate; some practitioners calculate three times. Overtime is prohibited in principle and allowed only in the cases listed in the Code, so agree the calculation with your payroll provider in advance.
Substitute days are not official holidays
4 May, 27 December and 28 December are days off, but they are not on the Art. 154(1) list. The statutory double pay does not apply to rostered work on those days. For staff on a standard five-day week, being called in on a substitute day is overtime on a non-working day, paid with a supplement of at least 75% under Art. 262.
Annual leave is counted in working days
The statutory minimum is 20 working days of paid annual leave (Art. 155). Public holidays and substitute days inside a leave period are not deducted from the allowance. An employee who is off from 26 April to 7 May 2027 uses six days of leave, not ten.
Do tax deadlines move because of holidays?
Yes. Under Art. 22(7) of the Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code, a deadline that expires on a non-working day expires on the next working day.
The clearest case in 2027 is the personal income tax return for 2026. Its statutory deadline is 30 April, which is Good Friday. The following days are a weekend, Easter Monday and the substitute day, so the deadline becomes Wednesday 5 May 2027. The same rule applies to any filing or payment date that lands on a weekend or holiday.
What has to be closed before the year ends is covered in our Bulgaria year-end guide.
Frequently asked questions
How many public holidays does Bulgaria have in 2027? Thirteen official holiday dates. Nine fall on weekdays and three more weekdays are off as substitutes, so employees get twelve weekday days off in total.
Do I have to pay double for work on a Bulgarian public holiday? Yes. Work on an official holiday is paid at no less than double the employee’s remuneration, even when the shift is part of the regular roster.
Total employment costs, including employer contributions, are broken down in the real cost of employing someone in Bulgaria. If your Bulgarian company is managed from abroad and you want payroll, holiday pay and filings handled locally, see our accounting services in Bulgaria.