Friday, September 19 | 2025
Sweden has very generous laws around vacation. If you for instance work full time, you will at least have 25 days paid vacation. This is the basic and a lot of companies and agencies offer more vacation. For instance it is not uncommon that people over 45 working in a public agency have 7 weeks paid vacation every year. Sweet huh! Red days and squeeze days in Sweden also have to do with time off but in a slightly different way. Let’s look into it!
Red day – röd dag
In Sweden, public holidays are called ‘red days’ in Sweden. There is nothing sinister about this, it is simply because these days are traditionally marked in calendars in red. Red days are Sundays and other public holidays where people often celebrate a religious or a traditional public holiday.
Important to know! If a red day falls on a weekend, you won’t automatically get a corresponding weekday off. This means that the exact number of days off changes each year. More on that later.
Squeeze day – klämdag
A ‘squeeze day’, or ‘klämdag’ in Swedish, is a day of the week that falls between a public holiday (a red day) and a weekend. When a public holiday occurs on a Tuesday or a Thursday in Sweden, many will take the day between the holiday and the weekend as a day off. This will count towards your vacation days but sometimes this is subsidized by the employer and you may get the entire day or half the day off.
Swedens public holidays
There are 13 Swedish public holidays in the year and it is a good idea to take note of them for ultimate vacation planning.
January
- New Year’s Day (Nyårsdagen) 1 January
- Epiphany (Trettondag jul) 6 January
March-April
- Good Friday (Långfredagen)
- Easter Sunday (Påskdagen), falls at the earliest on 22 March and at the latest 25 April
- Easter Monday (Annandag påsk)
April-June
- Ascension Day (Kristi himmelfärdsdag) falls 40 days after Easter Sunday, always on a Thursday; earliest 30 April and latest 3 June.
May
- May Day, International Labour Day (Arbetarrörelsens internationella högtidsdag) 1 May
May-June
- Whit Sunday (Pingstdagen) falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter: earliest 10 May and lastest 13 June.
June
- Sweden’s National Day, 6 June. When the National Days falls during a weekend, many people get a day free from work that they can use later in the year.
- Midsummer Eve (Midsommarafton) is not a public holiday, but many people are free from work by agreement with the employer. Midsummer Eve always falls on a Friday at the end of the month.
- Midsummer Day (Midsommardagen) always falls on a Saturday.
October-November
- All Saints’ Day (Alla helgons dag) is always celebrated on the Saturday between 31 October and 6 November.
December
- Christmas Eve (Julafton), 24 December, is not a public holiday, but many people are free from work by agreement with the employer.
- Christmas Day (Juldagen), 25 December
- Boxing Day (Annandag jul), 26 December
- New Year’s Eve (Nyårsafton), 31 December, is not a public holiday, but many people are free from work.
Good or bad years
In Sweden it is something of a public sport to plan your vacations, red days and squeeze days meticulously at the beginning of each year in order to get the maximum of free time. Some years are called employer years which means the red days and squeeze days fall on a Saturday or Sunday. Other years are employee years which means you can get 10-20 more days off work if you just plan your vacation days cleverly.
For instance a good year is when the maximum number of holidays fall on a weekday and even better, fall on a Tuesday or a Thursday – thus allowing you to take a klämdag and give yourself a lovely four-day long weekend while using up only one day of leave. For instance 2022 and 2023 were bad years for employees, 2024 was good, and 2025 is excellent! 😊
Red days and squeeze days at school or day care
If you have kids at day care or school in Sweden, you will have to plan extra carefully because they tend to be shut on all red days and squeeze days. Daycares tend to offer some sort of extra service for squeeze days but this has to be planned in advance. Schools will not have regular classes but the usual after school activity center called fritids in Swedish tends to be open all day.
Do you get paid for red days?
If you work on a red day you are of course paid and you often get overtime as a red days is a public holiday. However there is no law granting you pay for the red day if you are not working.
Are shops open on red days in Sweden?
Nowadays you can do your shopping just like any day. Mostly. Most big shops are open on red days just as they would be any Saturday or Sunday. However, some days are a bit redder than others, for instance Christmas and Midsummer, which means that it is a good idea to check the shops opening hours online before heading out on a red day.
Is Systembolaget open on red days and squeeze days?
Systembolagets opening hours are regulated by the government and Systembolagets regular opening hours are not as generous as for instance a supermarket. Systembolagets normal opening hours are usually:
- 10-19 on weekdays,
- 10-15 on Saturdays
- and closed on Sundays.
However, most red days will mean that Systembolaget is closed. So if you plan to have a drink on a red day, it is a good idea to plan your beverage shopping appropriately.
Local shops may have different opening hours but they will then be open less than the government decreed times. You can check the general opening times during red days on Systembolagets website but you should always check your local shops information as well, which you find by doing a search here.
Squeeze days are not public holidays which means that most big shops (including Systembolaget) will have business as usual.
Further reading
Looking for more help to plan your red days and squeeze days in Sweden? Check out this webpage dedicated to maximizing your vacation. Good luck!
And on this page you find a useful vocabulary for some more vacation related words.
