By Neft Román — Legacy Vallarta Realty
Most foreigners learn the Mexican holiday calendar the same way: standing outside a closed notaría, holding an appointment confirmation, on a day that was a completely normal Monday back home. It is an easy problem to avoid, but only if you know that Mexico has three different kinds of closed day and they do not overlap the way you would expect.
The Seven Days That Are Actually Law
Article 74 of the Ley Federal del Trabajo lists the obligatory rest days. There are seven of them, and three float to the nearest Monday so the country gets a long weekend instead of a stranded Wednesday. For 2026 they fall like this:
- January 1 — New Year
- February 2 (first Monday of February) — Constitution Day
- March 16 (third Monday of March) — Benito Juárez
- May 1 — Labor Day
- September 16 — Independence
- November 16 (third Monday of November) — Revolution Day
- December 25 — Christmas
There is also a December 1 every six years when the federal executive changes hands. The last one was 2024; the next is 2030.
Article 75 is the reason these days close things so completely: an employee who works an obligatory rest day is owed triple pay. For a small business with four employees, the arithmetic usually decides the question. Two dates are worth putting in your calendar now — September 16 falls on a Wednesday in 2026, so it is a single day off with no bridge, while November 16 is a Monday, which means a three-day weekend and a full city. If you have visitors coming or a flight to book around that date, do it early.
Feriado, Asueto, and the Days Nobody Legislated
This is the distinction that saves you the wasted trip. A día feriado oficial is one of the seven above — federal, in the labor law, the same for everyone. A día de asueto is an administrative day off that an institution grants its own people, and every institution keeps a different list. Banks follow the calendar set by the financial authority, schools follow the SEP calendar, and municipal offices follow their own. That is exactly why your bank branch is dark on a day that is not a legal holiday at all.
In practice the banking calendar usually adds Jueves Santo and Viernes Santo, November 2 and December 12. Confirm your own bank’s list at the start of each year rather than assuming — they publish it.
Then there is the third category, the days when nothing is legally closed and the city stops anyway:
- December 12, Guadalupe. Centro is closed to traffic for the processions and you will not get a trade to your house.
- November 1 and 2, Día de Muertos. Half day at best, and in Puerto Vallarta the festival now runs several days around it.
- Semana Santa, the whole week. This is the biggest domestic travel week of the year, so Vallarta gets fuller, not emptier — but the offices you need are empty.
- December 24 and 31 from midday onward, and most of the last two weeks of December for professional services.
- May 10, Mother’s Day. Nothing closes, but every restaurant is booked and nobody is coming to fix your water heater.
And September 15 is its own case. The Grito is called from the Plaza de Armas with fireworks over Los Arcos del Malecón, and the parade runs the Malecón the next morning. Nothing is closed on the 15th, but downtown parking stops existing by late afternoon. The detailed municipal program is usually published only a few days ahead, so check the Ayuntamiento’s channels that week.
What Still Works When Everything Is Closed
Almost all of your money does. This surprises people who are used to a banking system that sleeps on holidays.
- SPEI transfers, CoDi, ATMs, card payments and online banking run every day of the year, holidays included. A SPEI sent on September 16 settles on September 16.
- Supermarkets and big-box stores stay open — Costco, Walmart, La Comer, Soriana — sometimes on reduced hours. OXXO does not close.
- Emergency medical care is unaffected. Hospital urgencias and IMSS emergency services run normally; it is the administrative windows that close.
- What closes is anything needing a signature or a stamp: bank branches, notarías, the Registro Público, municipal offices, IMSS and INM administrative desks, and most professional services.
One genuinely nice thing about a feriado here is that the small family places are often exactly the ones still open, because a holiday is one of their best days. In Versalles, Birria El Tío Tono is the kind of place that keeps its own hours and fills up when the offices are dark, and Marisma Fish Taco in Centro works the same way. The rule of thumb is that the more corporate the business, the more likely it follows the calendar.
How to Plan a Closing Around It
If you are buying or selling, the holiday calendar is not trivia — it is your timeline. A few things that actually move dates:
- Ask your notaría in November for its December calendar. Many close for the last stretch of the year, and a closing that slips into January can slip by three weeks, not three days.
- Build two or three buffer days into any deadline near a puente. A Monday holiday quietly removes a business day from a week you assumed was full.
- Watch the mismatch on international wires. US and Mexican holiday calendars do not line up. A wire that leaves on a US holiday and lands on a Mexican one can lose two full days.
- Do not schedule trades or renovations for the last two weeks of December or Semana Santa. Book either side of them instead — you will get better people and better prices.
Where to Go From Here
If the calendar feels arbitrary, it is worth reading why the same request gets different results here — the logic behind Mexican institutions is consistent once you can see it. And for the money side of holiday timing, our guide to opening a Mexican bank account covers how SPEI works and why it makes closed-day planning much easier.
This article is for general information only and is not legal or financial advice. Holiday dates and institutional calendars change year to year; confirm current dates with your bank, your notaría and the relevant government office before scheduling anything that depends on them.
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