The Year Ahead 2025 – important calendar information for anyone doing business in Poland and in the UK, in particular for HR and marketing departments.

26 January (winter sales)

13 April (last Sunday before Easter)

27 April (Sunday before the May public holidays)

29 June (summer sales)

31 August (last Sunday before the new school year)

14 December and 21 December (last two Sundays before Christmas)

[Small shops (under 280m²) in England and Wales can open any day or hour. There are no trading-hour restrictions in Scotland.

Shops over 280m² can open on Sundays but only for six consecutive hours between 10am and 6pm, and must close on Easter Sunday and Christmas Day]

JANUARY

Three Kings (Trzech Króli) has been a public holiday since 2011. However, in introducing this additional day off work, the government announced that as a quid pro quo, any public holiday falling on a Sunday would no longer be replaced by days off in lieu. In case of public holidays which fall on a Saturday, employees can ask for a day off in lieu before or after.

The Polish education system has two semesters rather than three terms that the UK has; Christmas and Easter breaks are shorter than in the UK. There are no half terms (but then summer holidays are longer). Instead of half-term holidays, Poland has ferie – a single two-week break half-way through the school year, between the first and second semester. The ferie break occurs from late January into early March, corresponding with the peak winter-sports season. To avoid overcrowded ski resorts, the ferie breaks are staggered voivodship (Polish province) by voivodship, and rotate each year. In 2025 the ferie breaks are like this:

The finale of the Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy, (‘Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity’) is Poland’s biggest flag-day-cum-telethon event, with volunteers shaking collecting boxes all over the land, for the 33rd time. The first was held in 1993. Each year, tens of millions of zlotys are donated (with new records being set each year) and passed onto children’s hospitals, and more recently, to old folks’ charities. Please give generously!

Three Kings signals the traditional beginning of karnawał. Poland has the longest carnival in the world – from 7 January right through to Shrove Tuesday (4 March in 2025), usually an ideal antidote to long, cold, dark nights, when spring is still a long, long way off. A time to party, to dance, to feast – for businesses, this is the ideal excuse for press launches, off-site staff events, mixers, mingles and anything else involving people, music, drink and a party atmosphere.

The studniówka (literally, “the Hundred Dayer”) is a ball that takes place a hundred days (or thereabouts) before high-school students take their matura, (equivalent of UK A-Levels – exams taken at the end of secondary education). A formal dance – gowns and suits – it is Poland’s High School Prom, but held before the exams. Dates vary from school to school, on Saturdays in late January or February.

FEBRUARY

Walentynki, eagerly adopted by Poles ever since the free market took over from communism. Book your restaurant table early!

A celebration of longer standing in the UK.

Mid-to-late February; often results in long queues at the Channel ports caused by families setting off on their skiing holidays. May be problems for logistics between Poland and the UK around this time

Precise dates for school terms and half term holidays from one local authority to another; to find out, click here.

While the rest of the Catholic world has Mardi Gras or ‘Fat Tuesday’, Poland has a ‘fat Thursday’ (tłusty czwartek) in the week preceding Shrove Tuesday, noted for the consumption of doughnuts (pączki). The last days of Carnival have begun…

The Muslim month of fasting and prayer. Muslims across the UK will be fasting.

MARCH

Shrove Tuesday in Polish is Ostatki, literally ‘the Lasts’, or ‘that which is left’. Not content with bingeing on pączki on Fat Thursday, Poles also do Shrove Tuesday. Ostatki is the final, final fling before Lent, when the last of meat, cakes, ale, mead, vodka etc must be consumed.

From Ash Wednesday (or Popielec, falling on 5 March this year) to Easter Saturday (30 March). Taken more seriously than in the UK. Not a good time for product launches, office parties etc; many Poles give up alcohol, cakes, confectionery, meat, dancing and loud music for the duration. Lent is a great occasion to give up drink for the whole period, detoxify the body – and all in good time to get in shape for the beach.

Today, more of a celebration of feminism than a throwback to communist times. Potted plants, daffodils (modern) or red carnations (traditional) are in evidence. Saturday this year.

The first day of astronomical spring, when the sun crosses the equator and re-enters the Northern Hemisphere. Equinox. Celebrated in rural Poland with Topienie Marzanny (the drowning of Marzanna), in which a straw figure of a woman, dressed in white robes, symbolising Winter, is paraded around the village and thrown into the nearest river, pond or lake. This is also Dzień wagarowicza – traditionally ‘bunking off school day’; it falls on a Friday in 2025. Weather-wise, the occasional snowfall has been known to happen in April and even early May, though such occurrences are becoming rare as the climate changes.

Clocks go forward one hour at 02:00 on Sunday 30 March, yielding a welcome extra hour of daylight in the evening. Suddenly, the sun sets in Warsaw at 19:03; a day earlier it was 18:01. At the same time, the UK will switch to British Summer Time, so Poland remains one hour ahead of the UK. There may still be anomalous weather, but generally, this is the time that drivers can replace their winter tyres with ordinary rubber. (At temperatures below +6C, normal tyres can lose grip on the road surface.) It’s always a close call as to when to change one’s winter tyres, but around the time the clocks change is a good rule of thumb.

Clocks go forward one hour at 02:00 on Sunday 30 March, yielding a welcome extra hour of daylight in the evening. Britain switches from Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time

The end of Ramadan is celebrated by Muslims with feasts and family gatherings.

APRIL

The Grand National is truly a national event with broad appeal, watched by millions on TV, even those with no interest in horse racing placing bets on the unpredictable race.

Church processions will be seen in the streets around churches; people will carry branches of willow (standing in for palms, generally unobtainable in Poland at this time of year!) to get blessed by the priests. Sunday 13 April is also one of the seven Sundays in 2025 when all shops are permitted to open (assuming no legislative changes in this regard).

Good Friday (18 April), Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday (20 April) are the culmination of the Roman Catholic year. Barely visible in the UK, yet taken most seriously in Poland. Shops are decorated accordingly (chicks, lambs, spring greenery). Paradoxically, Good Friday is not a public holiday in Poland – though it is in the UK. On Saturday, many people will go to their church to have a basket of food (traditionally a hard-boiled egg, some bread, salt and sausage) blessed by the priest. In larger towns there is also the tradition of going from church to church to visit the various Tombs of Jesus. Easter Sunday traditionally begins with the Resurrection Mass, which should begin before day-break, can last up to three hours, includes the singing of all 14 verses of the Te Deum and a litany to all the saints, burning of candles and incense and much ringing of bells and setting off of fire-crackers. At home afterwards, Easter is celebrated with a large breakfast meal, including much meat (sausages and hams, blessed in church the previous day, salads and the sharing of the symbolic egg). Schools will be closed from Thursday 17 April to Tuesday 22 April inclusive.

Poles are astonished when they learn that Britain – a Protestant country – has a public holiday marking the Crucifixion of Christ.

Other than eating chocolate Easter eggs, there are hardly any traditions observed nationally to commemorate the Resurrection of Jesus.

The day after Easter Sunday, 21 April is a public holiday. Warning: It is also lany poniedziałek (‘Wet Monday’) or śmigus dingus – the traditional Polish water-throwing festival, a folk fertility ritual, with young men chasing the girls with buckets of water drawn from the well. In towns, plastic bottles filled with water from puddles can splash passers-by.

The day after Easter Sunday, 21 April is a public holiday.

MAY

International Labour Day is marked with a day off work. Falling on a Thursday, many employees will want to take the Friday off.

(UK bank holidays always fall on a Monday, so International Labour Day is celebrated to the nearest Monday in May to 1 May.)

Trzeciego maja is a national holiday celebrating Poland’s first written constitution, back in 1791 – not too long after the US, making it the second in the world, the first in Europe. National flags are flown. Falling on a Saturday this year, employees can choose whether to take Friday 2 May or Monday 5 May off in lieu.

Early May Bank Holiday.

‘The Cold Gardeners’. The feast days of St Pancras, (Pankracy – Monday 12 May), St Servatus (Serwacy – Tuesday 13 May), St Boniface (Bonifacy – Wednesday 14 May) and St Sophia (Zofia – Thursday 15 May) as associated with a sudden cold snap after the first few weeks of beautiful spring weather; climate change has weakened this effect in recent years. The ‘Ice Saints’ are a Central European phenomenon, also noted in Germany and Czechia. Zofia’s name day is celebrated by Zosias all over Poland.

FA Cup Final, Wembley. The oldest football cup competition in the world.

Spring Bank Holiday. This usually coincides with the summer term half-term holiday, which is a week in late May/early June (depending on local authority)

Eight-year-olds will have their first Holy Communion throughout May and into June; traditionally an occasion to dress daughters in white and to buy children bicycles – though now increasingly tablets, laptops and smartphones.

JUNE

Poles genuinely love their children. On Children’s Day, Poles buy them toys, take them on picnics or to the cinema. Many Polish firms will organise family picnics around this day. Warsaw’s Metro has celebrated the day by getting nursery school children to announce the names of the stations. The family is considered very important in Polish society, as are children. A Sunday in 2025.

A Holy Day of Obligation and a national holiday. A movable feast, though always on a Thursday; many staff will want to take Friday 20 June off to give them a four-day weekend. Large processions are held in many towns and villages around Poland, taking to the roads and visiting florally decorated wayside altars. Watch out for diversions and take special care when driving around in rural parts.

Saturday 21 June, St John’s Eve. The summer solstice, the longest day of the year, is traditionally celebrated coinciding as it nearly does with two Johns’ names-days (actually on 24 and 26 June). In rural Poland, Noc Świętojańska is celebrated by maidens casting floral wreaths into rivers, to be fished out by the man destined to marry the one who cast the wreath. Summer solstice comes this year on 21 June; the sun sets in Warsaw at 21:01. Make the most of the light evenings – in six months’ time, it will be dark before half past three in the afternoon.

King Charles III’s actual birthday is on 14 November. Like all monarchs since Edward VII, regardless of the date of the actual birthday, the official celebration takes place around this time of year. Saturday 21 June is the date for the Trooping of the Colour in 2025. British Embassies around the world will celebrate the King’s Birthday, though not necessarily on this actual day.

Not a public holiday.

As stated above, Polish schools have two terms rather than three, with no half-terms and shorter Christmas and Easter breaks. However, they have longer summer holidays, breaking up at the end of June. In 2025, the school year officially ends on Friday 27 June. The last day of the school year is marked by ceremonies, diplomas, flower-giving, speeches, songs etc. Expect some parents of school-age children to ask for part of the day off.

Shops are open today – one of the seven trading Sundays of 2025.

A British player is unlikely to win; yet this is the world’s number 1 tennis event, steeped in tradition and attracting a global audience.

JULY

Schools break up for summer holidays. The exact date can vary between local authorities

AUGUST

Warsaw is decked out in national and city (red-and-yellow) flags commemorating the outbreak of the Uprising on 1 August 1944. At 17:00 – H-Hour – all the capital’s sirens sound. Over 200,000 civilians died (more than the number killed by the combined atomic blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki); 85% of the city was destroyed in the two-month long effort to free the capital from the Nazis, while the Red Army watched on from across the river. In 2025, the commemorations will be held on a Friday.

Summer Bank Holiday (Scotland).

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A public holiday. It’s also the national Armed Forces Day, marking the anniversary of the ‘Miracle on the Vistula’ (Cud nad Wisłą) of 1920, when the Polish army under Marshal Piłsudski saved Europe from the Bolsheviks sweeping westwards for Berlin and Paris. There will be a military march and a fly-past in Warsaw.

Summer Bank Holiday (England, Wales and Northern Ireland).

Shops are open on this, the last Sunday before the new school year begins.

SEPTEMBER

The Polish school year runs from the beginning of September to the end of the penultimate week of June. The first day is marked by formal school ceremonies. Parents of younger children will often ask for the morning off to attend.

The harvest festival, when garlanded politicians break bread with traditionally costumed peasants. Dożynki tend to take place from mid- to late-September. As good a time as any to sell consumer durables to Poland’s rural population, which still makes up one-third of the nation (roughly the same proportion as the UK 150 years ago).

OCTOBER

The Hindu ‘festival of lights’ symbolising the victory of good over evil; a major celebration with fireworks, feasting and family gatherings.

The clocks go back at 2am on Sunday 26 October. Suddenly, it’s dark around 4pm. What we lose in the evenings, we gain in the mornings, but by mid-winter you will be setting off for work in darkness anyway. You won’t see much daylight outside of weekday working hours between now and late February. A good time to switch to winter tyres, as normal tyres’ grip starts deteriorating at around +6C.

The clocks go back at 2am on Sunday 26 October. Britain changes from BST (British Summer Time) to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)

NOVEMBER

A national holiday, with 80% of Poles visiting the graves of their departed family members. Cemeteries are ablaze with candles, bought in the run-up in their tens of millions. The day often coincides with first frosts of the year, fogs and poor driving conditions just as half of Poland takes the road. Take care driving, as the number of Poles killed in road accidents is higher than at any other time of year. Avoid large urban cemeteries (huge traffic jams). Falling on a Saturday this year, so employees will be asking for Friday 30 October or Monday 3 November off in lieu.

This national holiday is usually celebrated with military parades, patriotic speeches and a day off work. National flags will be flown. Expect employees to request Monday 10 November off so as to have a four-day weekend.

A recent US import to Poland, an excuse for retailers to clear stock in the run-up to Christmas despite there being no such thing as Thanksgiving here. Many retailers and e-commerce sites advertise a black week or longer with extended promotions. Poles are careful shoppers!

A recent US import to the UK, an excuse for retailers to clear stock in the run-up to Christmas despite there being no such thing as Thanksgiving here. High consumer demand can lead to website crashes, delivery delays and chaotic scenes in shops.

The last two Sundays before Christmas are both open for shopping.

Christmas Eve (Tuesday 24 December) – wigilia – is the Big Event, rather than the First Day of Christmas; however it is not a public holiday. Most employers, however, tend to give at least the afternoon off. The First Day and Second Days of Christmas (25 and 26 December) falling on a Wednesday and Thursday respectively, are both public holidays.

Schools break up on Tuesday 23 December and restart on Friday 2 January.

Christmas Eve (Tuesday 24 December) is not a public holiday; as in Poland the First Day of Christmas (25 December) and Boxing Day (26 December) are.

Schools break up in mid-December and restart on Monday 5 January, exact dates vary from one local authority to the next

Not a public holiday. Poland’s fireworks night, putting Guy Fawkes Night to shame. Not fun for pets or birds, however. The first day of 2026 falls on a Thursday, which is a public holiday.