National Holidays and Public Holidays

Maltese law distinguishes between national holidays and other public holidays. The five national holidays are Freedom Day, Sette Giugno, the Feast of Our Lady of Victories, Independence Day, and Republic Day. They commemorate different episodes in Malta's constitutional, political, and wartime history.[1][2]

The remaining statutory public holidays include New Year's Day, the Feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck, the Feast of Saint Joseph, Good Friday, Workers' Day, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, and Christmas. Good Friday follows the Easter calendar, while the other holidays have fixed positions in the statutory calendar.[1][2]

What Happens When a Holiday Falls on a Day Off?

Malta does not simply move every weekend public holiday to the following Monday. Instead, the employment system protects the employee's holiday entitlement through vacation leave. For a full-time employee, when a national or public holiday falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or another weekly day of rest to which the employee is entitled, an additional day's equivalent in vacation-leave hours is added during the same calendar year.[3]

The rule is broader in practice than a weekend-only description suggests. The Department for Industrial and Employment Relations explains that when a public holiday falls on any day of the week on which a full-time employee is not scheduled to work because it is that employee's normal day off, the equivalent of one working day is added to the employee's vacation-leave entitlement.[3]

Paid Holidays and Working on a Public Holiday

Full-time employees are entitled to national and public holidays with full pay. When a public holiday is a scheduled working day but the employee receives it as the applicable day off, the employee retains the normal full wage for that day.[3][4]

The additional payment for actually working on a public holiday is not identical in every sector. Malta uses Wage Regulation Orders for numerous industries, and the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations publishes sector-specific rules. In many covered sectors, an employee working a normally scheduled public holiday receives the normal wage plus an enhanced rate for the hours worked, but the multiplier and detailed conditions can differ.[4]

Employees should therefore check the Wage Regulation Order applying to their industry, or the national standard where no sector-specific order applies, rather than assuming that one holiday-work premium applies to every job in Malta.[2][4]

Why Malta's National Holidays Matter

Malta's five national holidays form a concise calendar of the country's modern national story. Sette Giugno commemorates the Maltese victims of civil unrest under British rule; Independence Day marks Malta becoming an independent state; Republic Day commemorates the establishment of the republic; and Freedom Day is associated with the end of the foreign military presence.[1]

The Feast of Our Lady of Victories has both religious and historical significance and is also one of the five national holidays. This combination of civic anniversaries and Catholic observances is characteristic of Malta's statutory calendar.[1][2]

Religious Feasts and Local Festas

Catholic observances occupy a prominent place in Malta's public-holiday calendar. Saint Paul's Shipwreck, Saint Joseph, Good Friday, Saints Peter and Paul, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, and Christmas all have statutory public-holiday status.[2]

Alongside the nationwide calendar, Malta and Gozo have an extensive programme of village feasts dedicated to local patron saints and other religious traditions. VisitMalta lists village feasts as a distinct category of events and shows celebrations taking place in numerous towns and villages across the islands.[5] These local festas should not automatically be treated as additional nationwide public holidays.

For visitors, a local festa can be as relevant to day-to-day plans as a national holiday because celebrations may include religious observances and community events in a particular locality. Check the destination's event programme when travelling during the traditional festa season.[5]

Planning Work and Travel Around Holidays

Malta's official government portal publishes the applicable public-holiday calendar, while the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations explains the employment entitlements attached to those holidays.[1][2][3] These are the appropriate references when planning staffing, leave, or time-sensitive business.

Visitors should separately verify the opening hours of attractions, shops, restaurants, banks, government services, and transport providers. Statutory employee rights do not establish a single opening-hours rule for every organisation, and tourism-oriented services may operate differently from offices or other workplaces.

Local events also deserve attention. Malta's official tourism calendar includes public holidays, religious events, and village feasts, making it useful for identifying celebrations that could affect a particular destination even when they are not nationwide statutory holidays.[5]