Public holidays · 2026
Maundy Thursday (from 2pm) falls on Thursday, 2 April 2026 in Sweden in 2026.
A bank holiday: banks and financial markets close; many other workplaces stay open.
In 2026 it falls on a Thursday, 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.
Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, at which Jesus shared a final meal with his disciples before his arrest. In Christian tradition it is the day on which he washed his disciples' feet and instituted the Eucharist. It opens the Easter Triduum, the three days of the Passion, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and in the Catholic Church the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper is the first liturgy of the Triduum. In Orthodox churches it is Great and Holy Thursday, which also commemorates the Last Supper; the main service combines Vespers with the Liturgy of Saint Basil, and in the evening the Twelve Passion Gospels are read.
The word Maundy is generally traced to the Latin mandatum, meaning commandment, from the words in John's Gospel in which Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment to love one another; another theory links it to the maund, a basket for alms. Customs include the washing of feet by bishops and priests, the stripping of altars, and the silencing of church bells after the Gloria, which in Czech, Slovak and Luxembourgish tradition are replaced by wooden rattles. In Britain the monarch gives specially minted Maundy coins to elderly people, a custom that goes back to Edward I. In Greece and Bulgaria eggs are traditionally coloured on this day.
Everywhere in Sweden.
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Questions
A bank holiday: banks and financial markets close; many other workplaces stay open.
Thursday, 2 April 2026.