School holidays and public holidays in Bern at a glance

What is new?

Ferien & Feiertage Bern is a new app in Bärn Kit. At the top it says whether today is a public holiday in the canton of Bern and whether the City of Bern has school holidays right now. Below: the next public holiday, the next school holidays and the next Sunday shopping day in the city centre. For every holiday it says what applies to shops, whether there is school and, for 2026, what the city's waste calendar says.

Why this app?

School holidays and public holidays are things people in Bern look up again and again: for trips, childcare, work or shopping. The information sits in different places: the school holidays with the city, the public holidays in cantonal law, the Sunday shopping days with BernCity. And not everything many people take for a holiday is one: 1 May is not a public holiday in the canton of Bern, 2 January is.

How it works

1. Open the page: at the top you see what applies today, then the next public holiday, the next school holidays and the next Sunday shopping day.
2. Under “Public holidays in the canton of Bern” tap a year: every holiday with shops, school and waste collection.
3. Under “School holidays, City of Bern state schools” pick the school year. With “Subscribe to calendar” school holidays, public holidays and Sunday shopping days appear in your calendar app two years ahead.

The school holidays are listed for the school years 2026/27, 2027/28 and 2028/29 as the Schulamt published them, plus other days off school such as the Friday after Ascension. Anything the city has not published yet is marked “not published yet”. Other municipalities can have other dates. No tracking.

Getting the dates into your calendar

Tap “Subscribe to calendar”. A small menu opens; the option that fits your device is at the top:

• Apple Calendar (iPhone, iPad, Mac): one tap, then confirm “Subscribe”.
• Google Calendar (Android, web): opens Google Calendar in the browser; confirm “Add” there. The dates then also appear in the Google Calendar app.
• Outlook: opens Outlook on the web with the calendar ready to add.
• Download the file (.ics): for any other calendar app. A file is a copy and does not update itself.

A subscription updates itself: new holidays, public holidays and Sunday shopping days are added automatically. You can remove it at any time in your calendar app by deleting the calendar or unsubscribing.

Sources and thanks

Every entry on the page has a source and a check date. Our thanks go to:

• Schulamt of the City of Bern: for the school holidays of the state schools and the rules on days off school. Thank you!
• Education and Culture Directorate of the canton of Bern: for the cantonal holiday schedule we checked the city's dates against. Thank you!
• Canton of Bern, BELEX law collection: for the Act on rest on public holidays and the trade act (shop opening hours). Thank you!
• BernCity: for the recommended shop opening hours on holidays and the Sunday shopping days in the city centre. Thank you!
• Entsorgung + Recycling Stadt Bern: for the 2026 waste calendar with the holidays without collection. Thank you!

If anything differs, the city and the canton of Bern apply; individual shops can have other hours.