Dreikönig 2027: Which German States Get 6 January Off

1. Where is 6 January 2027 a public holiday?

The table below gives the status for each territory. The Bavarian, Baden-Württemberg and Austrian lines rest on official texts. The Saxony-Anhalt line rests on calendars and regional press: the law itself has not been read. The Swiss lines rest on cantonal lists and press extracts, so check them against cantonal law before quoting them as final.

Source: Ferienwiki, Heilige Drei Könige, and the texts and calendars listed at the end of this article, checked on 7 November 2026.

Two mix-ups come up often in the sources. The first is thinking 6 January is a public holiday across Germany. It is a regional holiday, set state by state. The second is treating Austria and Switzerland as one block. In Austria the day is a holiday across the whole country; in Switzerland it depends on the canton.

2. Germany: three states take the day off, the rest work

Of Germany’s sixteen states, three make 6 January a statutory public holiday: Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt. In the other thirteen, it is a working day, even though the churches observe it.

Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt

Wednesday 6 January 2027 3 states out of 16

In Bavaria, 6 January appears in Article 1 of the state holidays act, among the statutory public holidays of the state (BayFTG, Article 1). Baden-Württemberg’s interior ministry lists it among the statutory holidays (Innenministerium Baden-Württemberg). Saxony-Anhalt has observed it since 1993 (Volksstimme).

Key points

• Bavaria: a public holiday across the whole state, Munich included.
• Baden-Württemberg: a public holiday across the whole state, Stuttgart included.
• Saxony-Anhalt: a public holiday since 1993, after a debate in the state parliament in 1992, according to regional press.

Pixidia tip: if you work in one of these three states while living elsewhere, the holiday is the one where you work. Check your situation with your employer before you book leave.

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See dates

In the other thirteen states, 6 January stays a working day. That includes Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse and Lower Saxony, according to the Ferienwiki calendar. Some websites list more states. Those lists don’t reproduce the text of the laws, so don’t cite them as sources.

3. Who gets the day off: the workplace decides

In Germany, the right to a public holiday follows the state where you work, not the state where you live or where your employer has its head office. Volksstimme makes the point in its article of 9 January 2023, and Haufe covers the same case for pay.

Two cases show the rule. Someone who lives in Stuttgart and works in Frankfurt, in Hesse, where 6 January is a working day, works that day. Someone who lives in Frankfurt and works in Stuttgart has 6 January off. The calendar of their home state doesn’t count.

On pay, an extract from Haufe, checked on 7 November 2026, says there is no compensation if you wouldn’t have worked that day anyway. Check your contract before you book leave for the bridge: this extract doesn’t replace your own situation.

4. Austria: a holiday everywhere, and the last day of the holidays

In Austria, 6 January is a public holiday across the whole country. The Federal Act on Public Holidays of 1957 lists it in § 1 under the heading « 6. Jänner (Heilige Drei Könige) » (RIS). The City of Vienna confirms Wednesday 6 January 2027 (wien.gv.at), and a 2027 calendar lists the same day in all nine Austrian states (Ferienwiki Austria 2027).

What sets Austria apart is the overlap with school holidays. According to the official calendar updated on 25 August 2026, the Christmas holidays run from Thursday 24 December 2026 to Wednesday 6 January 2027 in all states, and classes resume on Thursday 7 January. So the public holiday is also the last day of the children’s holidays. The pages we consulted don’t link these two calendars.

5. Switzerland: a cantonal holiday

In Switzerland, the cantons set their own public holidays. The cantons confirmed by our sources are Schwyz, Ticino, Uri and part of Graubünden. In Schwyz, 6 January 2027 is on the canton’s official 2027 list, in an extract (Kanton Schwyz). In Ticino, Uri and part of Graubünden, it appears in the Swiss 2027 calendar from Ferienwiki and in an article from the daily Blick. The same article says the holiday applies only in some parts of Graubünden. The municipalities concerned are not listed here.

Zurich and Lucerne appear as working days in a press extract from the Südostschweiz. That point needs checking against cantonal law before we treat it as a rule. The other cantons have not been checked.

The Dreikönigskuchen, a yeast cake with a figurine hidden inside, is still very much part of the tradition, especially in German-speaking Switzerland. Whoever finds the figurine becomes « king » (Blick). Sources disagree on where the cake comes from. We don’t settle that here.

6. End of the Christmas holidays and return to school

The end of the school holidays matters as much as the public holiday when you plan a trip. The table gives the last day of holidays and the return date for the three German states concerned and for Austria. The return date in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg is a calculation from the last day of holidays.

Source: KMK, Ferien im Schuljahr 2026/2027 (status 9 October 2025) for Germany, and oesterreich.gv.at, Ferienkalender 2026/2027 (updated 25 August 2026) for Austria, checked on 7 November 2026.

Some aggregated calendars differ by a day on when the holidays begin, for example for Saxony-Anhalt. We go with the official calendars.

7. The bridge: four days off for ten free days

The first week of 2027 is easy to read. Friday 1 January is a public holiday. The weekend covers 2 and 3 January. Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 are working days, Wednesday 6 is a public holiday in the states concerned and in Austria, Thursday 7 and Friday 8 are working days, and the weekend covers 9 and 10 January.

In the three German states where 6 January is a holiday, and in Austria, taking four days off (Monday 4, Tuesday 5, Thursday 7 and Friday 8 January) gives you ten free days, from Friday 1 to Sunday 10 January. For the three German states, that calculation comes from the ADAC, published on 21 August 2026 (ADAC, Feiertage und Brückentage 2027). For Austria, the same pattern is our own calculation, which the ADAC does not publish. The table below lists it day by day.

Source: ADAC, Feiertage und Brückentage 2027 (21 August 2026) for the total; day-by-day calculation, checked on 7 November 2026.

In the other thirteen states, where 6 January is a working day, the maths changes. Taking 4 and 5 January off gives you five free days, from 1 to 5 January, but there is no ten-day block, since Wednesday 6 is a working day.

Whether this counts as a « bridge » is debated. Kalenderpedia argues that 6 January, falling midweek, doesn’t work as a bridge day. The ADAC calculation shows the real driver is New Year’s: because 1 January is a Friday, the block of time off starts on the 1st and runs to the 10th. What checks out is the count: four days of leave, ten days off.

8. Traditions: Epiphany, Sternsinger and the king cake

6 January marks Epiphany, which in Greek means the manifestation of Christ to the non-Jews, shown through the adoration of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12). The Catholic and Protestant churches celebrate it under this name (German Wikipedia, Dreikönigstag). The names of the Magi, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, don’t appear in the Gospel. They come from a later tradition (Vatican News).

The Sternsinger, children dressed as the Magi, go from house to house, sing and chalk the initials C+M+B on the doors. They stand for Christus mansionem benedicat, « May Christ bless this house », according to one reading. Another reading sees the first names of the Magi (German Wikipedia).

Elsewhere in Europe, 6 January is lived differently. In Italy, La Befana is marked the same day, and our Befana 2027 guide covers the places and traditions. In Spain, the Three Kings Parade in Barcelona has its own article. We don’t repeat those pieces here.

9. What other guides don’t tell you

The points below don’t appear in the sections above. Each one links to a source checked on 7 November 2026.

• The number of public holidays depends on the source. Bavarian law counts twelve public holidays across the whole state. A school calendar lists thirteen by including regional feasts, and the Baden-Württemberg ministry gives twelve. BayFTG ; Schulferienplaner, Brückentage Bayern 2027 ; Innenministerium Baden-Württemberg.
• One end-of-holiday date is wrong in Bavaria. A muenchen.de page (extract) gives 10 January, which falls on a Sunday in 2027. The KMK calendar (status 9 October 2025) gives Friday 8 January. KMK.