Cyprus public holidays and annual leave 2026: full guide for employees

Cyprus has one of the more generous public-holiday calendars in the EU, and statutory annual leave on top of that. Whether you are negotiating an offer, planning travel home, or just orienting yourself in a new job, this is the 2026 picture — straight from the Cyprus Industrial Relations framework and Ministry of Labour guidance.

The 15 Cyprus public holidays in 2026

Important things to know about this calendar:

• Cyprus follows the Orthodox liturgical calendar. Greek Orthodox Easter in 2026 falls on Sunday 12 April — almost a week before Catholic Easter (5 April). If you have family commitments in a country that follows the Western calendar, plan annual leave accordingly.
• Green Monday (the first day of Orthodox Lent) is a full public holiday and one of the most-loved family days in Cyprus, traditionally spent outdoors flying kites and eating lenten food.
• Kataklysmos (Holy Spirit Monday, 50 days after Orthodox Easter) is unique to Cyprus — it is not a public holiday in mainland Greece — and combines an Orthodox feast with a much older Aphrodite-era water festival.

What happens when a holiday falls on a weekend

Cyprus does not automatically shift public holidays that fall on a Saturday or Sunday to the following Monday. The 2026 calendar has one such case:

• Saturday 15 August (Assumption of the Virgin Mary) is observed on Saturday only. Employees on a Monday–Friday schedule do not receive a substitute day off.

Two December holidays fall on Friday and Saturday — Christmas Day (Friday 25 December) and Boxing Day (Saturday 26 December). Boxing Day on a Saturday is similarly not shifted.

Statutory annual leave entitlement

Cyprus statutory paid annual leave in 2026 is based on the Annual Holidays with Pay Law:

Critical clarifications:

• Statutory minimum — many Cyprus employers offer 21–25 days as standard for office roles, and 25–30 days at senior levels or in the corporate / professional services sector.
• Public holidays are additional to annual leave entitlement. The 15 public holidays in 2026 do not count against your 20/24 days.
• First-year accrual: new joiners typically accrue leave at 1.67 days per month (5-day week) or 2 days per month (6-day week), available to take after a brief qualifying period that varies by employer.
• Carry-over: unused statutory leave can usually be carried into the following year, but most employers cap carry-over at 5 days unless agreed in writing.

Some sectors and individual contracts grant more generous leave allowances:

Sick leave

Cyprus sick-leave rules in 2026:

• First three days of any sick episode are unpaid by the employer (the "waiting period"), unless the contract or collective agreement says otherwise.
• From day 4 onwards, Social Insurance pays a sickness benefit, calculated as roughly 60% of insurable earnings (up to the social-insurance ceiling), for up to 156 days per episode.
• The employee must register the illness with their employer the same day, and submit a medical certificate from a GeSY GP or hospital within 3 working days.
• Some sectors — notably banking, government, and the Big 4 — pay full salary for the waiting period and top up the Social Insurance benefit thereafter, frequently for up to 30–60 days per episode.

Check your contract carefully — sick-leave generosity is one of the biggest hidden variables between Cyprus employers.

Religious and ceremonial leave

Cyprus contracts and many collective agreements recognise additional paid leave for:

• Marriage: typically 5–7 working days for the employee's own marriage.
• Bereavement: typically 3–5 working days for a death in the immediate family.
• Childbirth (paternity): statutory 2 weeks paid paternity leave for fathers in 2026, taken any time in the 16 weeks after birth.
• Maternity: 18 weeks statutory paid maternity leave (extended from 16 weeks under the 2022 reforms), with Social Insurance covering the maternity benefit.
• Religious observance: Greek Orthodox employees often take a half-day on Holy Saturday by custom; non-Orthodox employees can typically swap a Cyprus public holiday for their own religious feast by agreement with the employer.

Practical implications when negotiating an offer

When comparing two Cyprus offers, look beyond the headline base salary:

1. Quoted leave allowance — is it stated in working days or calendar days? (Cyprus convention is working days.)
2. Public holidays — are they additional to annual leave, or absorbed into a total "time off" pool? Almost always additional, but confirm.
3. Carry-over rules — important if you take long trips home outside the standard travel windows.
4. Sick-leave top-up policy — a strong sick-leave policy is worth €1,000–€3,000 of equivalent salary at mid-career levels.
5. Christmas Eve and Easter Saturday — some employers grant these as paid half-days even though they are not statutory; valuable in practice.

A quick 2026 leave-planning tip

Several 2026 Cyprus public holidays sit one day away from a weekend, making short breaks easy without burning much leave:

• Green Monday 23 February is a natural long weekend (Sat / Sun / Mon).
• Easter weekend 10–14 April is a four-day break for most employees (Good Friday + Easter Mon + Easter Tue, plus the Sat / Sun).
• Labour Day Friday 1 May is a natural long weekend.
• Kataklysmos Monday 1 June is a natural long weekend.
• Christmas 25–28 December is a four-day stretch (Fri / Sat / Sun / Mon).

Taking the Tuesday after Kataklysmos and the Wednesday and Thursday after Greek National Day (28 October) typically converts each into a 4–5 day trip with just 1–2 days of annual leave.