The 10 public holidays in Belgium and their meaning

New Year’s Day is celebrated every year on January 1st. In Belgium (as in many countries around the world), the tradition is to wish loved ones a Happy New Year. It’s customary to serve a glass of alcohol or galettes. It’s also customary to pronounce wishes and receive the famous dringuelle (money) for the little ones.

New Year’s Day is the first public holiday of the year on the calendar. We owe its celebration to Julius Caesar (yes, yes!), who decided in 46 BC to place it on January 1st (before that, New Year’s Day was celebrated… in March!).

Easter Monday is the day after the celebration of Easter, the most important Christian feast marking the resurrection of Christ. It follows a 40-day period of Lent. Its date varies each year according to the lunar calendar: in 2025, it will take place on April 21. The holiday was first formalized in the Concordat of 1801. This was a treaty signed between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII. Belgium, then under the influence of Napoleon’s French Republic, also adopted this tradition.

In contemporary Belgium, this day is often dedicated to family time or outdoor activities, taking advantage of early spring. It extends the Easter festivities, combining religious traditions with more recent customs. Examples include egg hunts and chocolate tasting.

Celebrated on the fortieth day after Easter Sunday (so it always falls on a Thursday), Ascension Thursday symbolizes Christ’s ascension to heaven after his resurrection. In our Gregorian calendar, Ascension Day is celebrated every year between April 30 and June 3.

This public holiday is due to Archbishop John Chrysostom and the theologian Gregory of Nyssa, who in the 5th century convinced Bishop Augustine of Hippo to make the Ascension of Christ a feast day.

In Belgium, this feast is mainly marked by the Procession of the Holy Blood in Bruges. Believing citizens come in costume to tell the story of this passage from the New Testament, while recounting the history of Bruges.

Pentecost is celebrated on the seventh Sunday after Easter Sunday, bringing the Easter season to a close. It symbolizes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the founding of the Church itself. It was first celebrated in the 2nd century, with the advent of the first Easter feasts, and owes its name to the priest Tertullian, who first called it “spatium Pentecostes”. The feast was solemnized on Sunday in Italy around 380.

However, its celebration on the calendar was extended to the following day: Whit Monday became a public holiday following the Concordat of 1801, as did the introduction of Easter Monday as a public holiday. Pentecost is also a time to watch peonies bloom. Their German name (Pfingstrose) means “Pentecost Rose”!

Although the official date of Belgian Independence is associated with October 4, 1830, it was King Leopold II who chose to make July 21 the Belgian National Holiday in 1890. He chose this date because of July 21, 1831. This was the day King Leopold I took his oath to the Constitution. This marked the beginning of an independent Belgium under a constitutional and parliamentary monarchy.

The National Holiday is widely celebrated in Belgium, and particularly in Brussels! Military and aerial parades, street parties, the presence of the royal family, concerts and fireworks punctuate July 21.

In the Christian faith, the Assumption symbolizes the day when Mary was welcomed into heaven in the glory of God, bringing her earthly life to an end. The Assumption of Mary has long been a liturgical feast, celebrated since the 8th century in both Western and Eastern Churches.

Although we have not been able to find the origin of the proclamation of August 15 as a public holiday in Belgium, it could possibly be linked to the Concordat of 1801. Among our French neighbors, it’s also possible that its officialization was marked by the Voeux de Louis XIII. Proclaimed between 1632 and 1638, the king pledged to consecrate his kingdom to Our Lady Mary.

The name says it all! All Saints’ Day celebrates all the saints of the Church who have not had their own feast day during the year. Surprisingly, All Saints’ Day was originally celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost! It was Pope Gregory IV who changed this (notably by coining its name), placing it on November 1 as early as 835.

In Belgium, as in many other countries, All Saints’ Day is dedicated to celebrating our deceased loved ones. (The day before, we already celebrate the Feast of the Dead, or Halloween). So it’s customary to lay flowers on the graves of our deceased.