Friday, January 3, 2025

Mark your calendar: Here are all the 2025 Mexican public holidays

2025 is already upon us, and if you haven’t already marked your calendars, here’s a reminder that Mexico has seven official public holidays in 2025.

Also worth keeping in mind is that there are a total of 11 bank holidays (which includes the official public holidays) that will occur in the upcoming year.

Municipal workers in bright green hazmat like jumpsuits sitting in a truck bed as they are driven on a Mexico City street on an official holiday
Those in Mexico who must work on official holidays, like these folks working on Christmas Day, are entitled to double-time pay. (Edgar Negrete Lira/Cuartoscuro)

According to Mexico’s Federal Labor Law, on the seven official holidays of 2025, employees required to work must receive double-time pay, or 100% overtime pay. 

Mexico’s official national holidays are as follows (with the actual date of the holiday in parentheses where appropriate):

  • Wednesday, Jan. 1: New Year’s Day 
  • Monday, Feb. 3: Constitution Day, observed (actual date: Feb. 5)
  • Monday, March 17:  Benito Juárez’s birthday, observed (actual date: March 21)
  • Thursday, May 1: Labor Day, or Worker’s Day, as it’s named in Mexico
  • Tuesday, Sept. 16: Independence Day
  • Monday, Nov. 17: Mexican Revolution Day, observed (actual date: Nov. 20)
  • Thursday, Dec. 25: Christmas Day

Although some people might think that May 5, or Cinco de Mayo, is an official holiday in Mexico, that is not the case. 

Although Mexico’s victory over France’s invading forces at the 1862 Battle of Puebla is celebrated and public schools are closed nationwide on May 5, only the state of Puebla and its neighbor state, Veracruz, observe Cinco de Mayo as an official holiday.

Some might recall that there were nine official holidays in 2024. Those extra two days were linked to the federal election cycle, which occurs every six years. 

Huejotzingo Carnival
Parade commemorating the Battle of Puebla, with participants in faux-Middle Eastern garb, a nod to the fact that Turkish mercenaries fought Mexico’s armies for France. May 5 is not an official holiday, although schools nationwide have it off.

June 2, 2024, was Election Day, on which the president and both houses of Congress were elected. Although Election Day in Mexico is always on Sunday, it was declared an official holiday.

And earlier this year, Congress declared Oct. 1, 2024, to be a national holiday — Inauguration Day. The law establishes that every six years (presidents serve six-year terms in Mexico), Oct. 1 will be an official public holiday. Prior to 2024, presidents were sworn in on Dec. 1 and Inauguration Day was celebrated every six years on that date.

New holidays coming in 2025?

The newspaper El Financiero reported that there could be two new additional public holidays approved for 2025. Congress is considering making Dec. 12, the Catholic feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage destination in the world

Congress also might declare June 1 a holiday as well — but only for this year: Mexico holds its first-ever nationwide election of judges and magistrates on Sunday, June 1, 2025. 

In addition to the seven official public holidays, Mexico’s banks, currency exchanges and financial markets observe four other holidays.

  • April 17: Holy Thursday
  • April 18:Good Friday 
  • Nov. 3: Day of the Dead (although this falls on a Sunday in 2025) 
  • Dec. 12: Virgin of Guadalupe feast day 

With reports from El Financiero, Debate and TV Azteca

1 COMMENT

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
A tiendita in Mexico

Best of 2024: Life in Mexico according to Sarah DeVries

4
It’s never easy trying to explain the myriad differences between life in the United States and life in Mexico — but Sarah DeVries sure tries. 
A Christmas gift under a tree

Why didn’t I get presents from my Mexican friends for Christmas?

6
Christmas Day has come and gone — so why didn't people seem to celebrate the same way?
Alan Chazarro and his family

My American Dream is in Mexico: Alan

3
Disaffected with the direction of the U.S., a Bay Area poet moved himself and his family to start a new life in Veracruz.