Hanukkah, Passover (Pesach): When is it?

Hanukkah, Passover (Pesach): December 5, 2026–December 12, 2026.

How does United States mark Days of the Jewish calendar?

Hanukkah

Local date: December 5, 2026–December 12, 2026
When is it?: Eight days from the 25th of Kislev in the Jewish calendar, running over into the month of Tevet.

Hanukkah is the Jewish festival Americans are likeliest to name and the one American institutions do least about, because it is not a day of rest in the first place. Eight days from 25 Kislev — 5–12 December in 2026 — and work and school continue right through them. New York City's 2026–2027 school calendar lists no closure for it; the December closure is Winter Recess, 24 December to 1 January, which does not overlap those eight days at all. New Jersey's list does carry Hanukkah as 5–12 December, so a student can be excused, but the festival's obligation falls after dark: one more light kindled each night. That is why the most publicly visible of these days leaves the faintest mark on institutional calendars. Its visibility runs through commerce and through public menorah lightings, not through anybody's day off.

Passover (Pesach)

Local date: April 22, 2027–April 29, 2027
When is it?: From the 15th of Nisan in the Jewish calendar; observed for eight days outside Israel.

Passover runs eight days outside Israel, beginning on 15 Nisan, and the American answer to it is scheduling rather than closure. The New York City calendar for 2026–2027 has no entry called Passover. It has Spring Recess, 22–30 April 2027, which happens to cover 22–29 April, the eight days of Passover that year. It is a secular block of days that lands where the festival lands. New Jersey names the festival outright: Passover, 22–29 April, sits on the state list of religious holidays permitting student absence, which means a student out on any of those days is recorded as excused, cannot be denied any award or the chance to compete for one because of the absence, has the right to take an alternate test, and must not have the absence appear on a transcript or an employment form. Two neighbouring states, two entirely different instruments: one moves the school year, the other creates a right.

Rosh Hashanah

Local date: September 12, 2026–September 13, 2026
When is it?: The 1st and 2nd of Tishrei in the Jewish calendar; 1 Tishrei never falls on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday. The Gregorian date is fixed by calculation, not by sighting the moon.

Rosh Hashanah opens the Jewish year on 1–2 Tishrei, and it is the pair of days American institutions run into first, because it lands in the opening weeks of the school year. It is not a federal holiday: the public holidays for federal employees are set by statute at 5 U.S.C. 6103, and of the eleven days the Office of Personnel Management publishes for 2026, exactly one is a religious festival — Christmas. Everything real happens below the federal line, and it is not uniform. New York City Public Schools, the largest system in the country, publishes a closure calendar each year; in 2026 Rosh Hashanah fell on Saturday and Sunday, 12–13 September, so no closure was needed and the calendar does not mention it at all. New Jersey works the other way round: its State Board of Education adopts an annual list of religious holidays on which a district must excuse a student whose parent sends a written request, and the 2026–2027 list carries Rosh Hashanah as 11–13 September, the extra day being the eve.

Yom Kippur

Local date: September 21, 2026
When is it?: The 10th of Tishrei in the Jewish calendar — the tenth day after the new year.

Yom Kippur, the tenth of Tishrei, is where the gap between the American federal calendar and the local one is easiest to see. Federal offices are open; the day appears nowhere in 5 U.S.C. 6103. But New York City Public Schools shut for it on Monday, 21 September 2026, and the calendar line reads exactly that: "September 21, Monday, Yom Kippur, schools closed." The same calendar closes for Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Good Friday. Eleven days into the school year, the whole system stops for a day. For adults at work the instrument is neither a holiday nor a school calendar but Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires an employer of fifteen or more to accommodate an employee's religious observance unless it can show undue hardship. In 2023 the Supreme Court raised that bar in Groff v. DeJoy, holding that showing "more than a de minimis cost" does not suffice: the burden must be substantial in the overall context of the business.

What is this topic?

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover and Hanukkah are national holidays nowhere — not even in the United States, home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, where the holidays for federal employees are fixed by statute at 5 U.S.C. 6103 and contain exactly one religious festival, Christmas. What differs from country to country is what a state offers instead. New York City closes its schools for Yom Kippur; New Jersey obliges every district to excuse a student on any of fourteen Jewish days; Brazil gives every student a statutory right to sit an exam on another date. Taiwan, Japan, China, India and Indonesia carry none of these days at all, and each for a different reason.

Sources and dates

Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.