Brazil and Rio de Janeiro public holidays 2026-2027

At a glance

Three lists: Brazil, Rio state and Rio city

Brazil sets public holidays at three levels, and in the city of Rio de Janeiro all three lists apply.

• National holidays are fixed by federal law. Every year the Ministry of Management and Innovation (MGI) publishes a portaria, a ministerial order, that repeats the list and adds the days off for federal offices. Good Friday is a religious holiday under Law 9.093/1995, and the MGI puts it on the federal list each year.
• Rio de Janeiro state adds Carnival Tuesday (Law 5.243/2008), St George’s Day on 23 April (Law 5.198/2008) and Corpus Christi (Law 11.002/2025). Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) upheld the Corpus Christi law on 19 June 2026. The state has kept 20 November as a holiday since 2002; since 2023 it has been a national holiday too.
• The city of Rio has one municipal holiday: 20 January, the day of St Sebastian (São Sebastião), the city’s patron saint.

If your route goes beyond the city of Rio, we check each town’s own holidays separately.

Brazil public holidays 2026

The federal dates and the days off for government offices follow Portaria MGI 11.460 of 29 December 2025, published in Brazil’s official gazette (DOU) on 30 December 2025. State and city holidays come from the 2026 calendars of the Rio de Janeiro State Court (TJRJ).

Public Servants’ Day on 28 October applies only to federal offices, and the government can move it by a separate act, as it did in 2025.

Brazil public holidays 2027

As of 23 October 2026 we have not found the MGI portaria for 2027. The 2026 one only came out on 30 December 2025. The dates below follow federal, state and city law.

Three 2027 holidays fall on a Saturday: 1 May, 20 November and 25 December.

The ponto facultativo days for 2027 will come later. The portaria will decide whether federal offices close on Carnival Monday (8 February), Ash Wednesday (10 February), Corpus Christi, and 24 and 31 December. We will update this table once it is out.

What ponto facultativo means

Ponto facultativo translates roughly as “optional attendance”. The government declares the day optional for its own offices, which does not make it a public holiday. The federal portaria binds only federal agencies. The state and the city decide separately for their own staff: for Carnival 2026, for example, Rio de Janeiro state declared ponto facultativo on 13, 16 and 18 February. Shops, museums and private companies choose for themselves whether to open.

For a visitor, this means government offices may be shut that day; for everything else, check each place’s own hours.

Carnival 2027: holiday or not

Carnival is not a federal holiday. In 2026, Carnival Monday and Tuesday were ponto facultativo for federal offices, and on Ash Wednesday they opened at 14:00. In Rio de Janeiro state, Carnival Tuesday is a public holiday under state law; in 2027 it falls on 9 February, and Ash Wednesday on 10 February. As of 23 October 2026 we have not found an announcement of ponto facultativo for Carnival 2027 at federal, state or city level.

Sambadrome (Sambódromo) parade nights in 2027:

• 5 and 6 February (Friday and Saturday): Série Ouro
• 7, 8 and 9 February (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday): Special Group (Grupo Especial)
• 13 February (Saturday): Champions’ Parade, the top six schools

Tickets, sectors and how the nights work: Rio Carnival.

What closes on public holidays in Rio

This section covers only what the organisations themselves confirm. For anywhere else, check the venue’s official website.

Shops in the city of Rio

Under the retail collective agreement (SindilojasRio), most shops in the city of Rio stay closed on four days a year:

• 25 December
• 1 January
• Carnival Tuesday (9 February 2027)
• Retail Workers’ Day (Dia do Comerciário), the third Monday of October: 19 October 2026 and 18 October 2027. It is not a public holiday; the day off comes from the agreement.

On all four days the agreement exempts businesses that federal Decree 10.854/2021 allows to work on holidays, and on Retail Workers’ Day shops in airports, ports, train and bus stations and metro stations may open too. On any other holiday a shop can open if it has union authorisation, so check the hours of the shop you need in advance.

Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden (Jardim Botânico) keeps its usual hours on public holidays: 8:00 to 17:00, and 11:00 to 17:00 on Wednesdays. The exceptions are 24 and 31 December, when it opens 8:00 to 14:00, and 25 December and 1 January, when it is closed. The garden’s museum is closed on Wednesdays. Tickets are sold on the garden’s website and at the ticket office at Rua Jardim Botânico, 1008. More: Rio Botanical Garden.

Museums

The Museum of Tomorrow (Museu do Amanhã) opens Thursday to Tuesday, 10:00 to 18:00 (last entry 17:00), holidays included, and closes on Wednesdays. In the 2025/2026 season it was closed on 25 December and 1 January, as were the Rio Art Museum (MAR) and the CCBB Rio cultural centre, according to Riotur, the city’s tourism office. Riotur also noted that each venue sets its own holiday hours. Its round-up for last season came out on 16 December 2025, so check the 2026/2027 hours closer to your dates; we will update this page when they are announced. The museum’s website says nothing about Carnival hours. More: Museum of Tomorrow.

How to check a specific day

1. Open the venue’s official website. The Botanical Garden and the Museum of Tomorrow publish their hours and exceptions there (links in the sources).
2. In December, look for Riotur’s holiday hours round-up; in 2025 it came out on 16 December.
3. On the day, use our page with Rio live cams and where to check what is open.
4. For a shop on a holiday, check with the shop itself.

How we help

We plan trip dates around holidays: we look at which ones fall on your route and check each place’s hours for your days. If a tour lands on a day the venue is closed, we move it to a day when it is open. For New Year and Carnival we book accommodation and transfers early. Write to us with your dates, group size and what you want to see, and we will send a proposal within 24 hours.