Public holidays · 2026
Carnival falls on Tuesday, 17 February 2026 in Portugal in 2026.
An optional holiday: employees may choose to take it, depending on the employer or region.
In 2026 it falls on a Tuesday, a working day.
The date changes from year to year.
Saturday and Sunday · A public holiday does not always close every business. Essential services, shops and some industries keep working, and pay rules differ by country and contract.
Carnival is the festive season before Lent in the Christian calendar, a time of parades, masks, costumes, music and feasting before the forty days of fasting that lead to Easter. Its best-known forms include Venice, Rio de Janeiro, Cologne and Mainz in Germany, Nice and Dunkirk in France, Binche in Belgium and the Fasnacht of Basel. Each has its own characters and food. The season has no single start: in German-speaking Europe and the Netherlands it traditionally opens on 11 November at 11:11, in other places after Epiphany, and in some only in the last week before Lent.
The final days, Fat Thursday, Carnival Sunday, Monday and Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras, meaning Fat Tuesday), are the high point. On this site Carnival is a public holiday in Andorra, Bolivia, Ecuador and Haiti, and a day off or optional holiday in places such as Brazil, Portugal and Uruguay; in Latin America it usually covers the Monday and Tuesday. Practices differ from town to town. Doughnuts, fritters, pancakes and sausages are typical foods, and in some places the season ends with a symbolic burial of Carnival.
Everywhere in Portugal.
Add to calendar (.ics)Print as PDFDownload as PNGDownload the national public holidays of Portugal 2026 for Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook. The PDF and PNG are a white A4 sheet with all twelve months.
Questions
An optional holiday: employees may choose to take it, depending on the employer or region.
Tuesday, 17 February 2026.