A public-holiday calendar records the days New Zealand has set aside as statutory time off. National holidays apply nationwide; where an official regional or provincial list is published, those dates are included separately and clearly labelled rather than folded into the national figures. This calendar is a reference, not a legal determination of anyone's leave entitlement. Dates move for two common reasons: many countries observe a fixed-date holiday on the nearest working day when it falls at a weekend, and some observances follow lunar or other non-Gregorian reckoning that shifts against the everyday calendar. Regional holidays are always shown as regional and never added to the national count. The licence terms and the government producer behind each list are credited on the sources page.
Reading the table
The table gives the date a holiday falls on, the observance date when a weekend shift or substitute day applies, and notes published with the source. A Regional · <region> badge marks a holiday that applies only in that region; it is never counted as nationwide. Some countries publish both the original date and the observed date, so both are shown instead of silently adjusting one. Employers, schools, and individual workplaces may follow different calendars or grant extra days, so treat this table as a guide rather than an entitlement. For a wider comparison of why observance moves between countries, see why holiday dates differ between countries. The official source is always the final authority.
Where these dates come from
New Zealand's dates come from Employment New Zealand (MBIE) and are Crown copyright, reused with attribution. The desk carries two layers: national public holidays such as Waitangi Day, Anzac Day and Matariki, and provincial anniversary days such as Auckland Anniversary or Canterbury Anniversary, which are labelled regional because they apply only in their district. Anniversary dates follow specific rules, the Monday closest to a set date in several provinces and Easter Tuesday in Southland, and are computed in the build from the rules MBIE publishes. Fixed holidays are Mondayised when they fall at a weekend, so the observed date can differ from the actual one, and Matariki is set by an official advisory group each year on a different date. The MBIE guidance is the authority; corrections flow from it. Wellington's anniversary is the Monday closest to 22 January, and Southland's is fixed to Easter Tuesday.