Korea’s official 2027 calendar has 10 runs of three or more days off and 119 days off for five-day-week workers, according to the Korea Aerospace Administration’s June 29, 2026 release. The best payoff is Chuseok: two leave days make nine days off in a row, Sept 11 to 19. Seollal gives six for two.
Our daughter was born in 2020 and starts elementary school in March 2027, so this month I opened a spreadsheet for the whole of next year. I build systems for a living, which means I copied a Korean calendar table into columns first and checked it second. In my copy, Feb 8 was marked as the Seollal substitute day. The official list says Feb 9. With my version Seollal ended on Monday and looked like a three-day block, and the six-day plan further down only works because of that one date. My wife, the ENFP of the house, would book flights first and sort out leave later, but I wanted the dates right before anything gets booked.
Which days are off in 2027, date by date?
The Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA, 우주항공청, Uju Hanggongcheong) publishes the official calendar guidelines (월력요항, wollyeok yohang, “calendar outline”) each summer. The 2027 edition is also in the Official Gazette (관보, gwanbo). It counts 10 runs of three or more consecutive days off, two more than the eight in the original 2026 outline and the same as the amended 2026 calendar. It is also the first calendar published with Labor Day (노동절, Nodongjeol, May 1) and Constitution Day (제헌절, Jeheonjeol, July 17) already government-office holidays; both were added during 2026. The Public Holidays Act (공휴일에 관한 법률) was amended for Constitution Day in January 2026 and for Labor Day in March, and the Cabinet approved the matching regulation on April 28. Constitution Day had been dropped in 2008, when the five-day workweek spread.
| Dates | Weekdays | Days | What makes the run | Error in a source I checked? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1–3 | Fri–Sun | 3 | New Year’s Day + weekend | None found |
| Feb 6–9 | Sat–Tue | 4 | Seollal Feb 6–8, substitute Tue Feb 9 | My own copy had Feb 8 |
| Feb 27–Mar 1 | Sat–Mon | 3 | Independence Movement Day (삼일절, Samiljeol) Mon Mar 1 | None found |
| May 1–3 | Sat–Mon | 3 | Labor Day Sat + substitute Mon May 3 | publicholidays.co.kr: “not official,” no May 3 |
| Jul 17–19 | Sat–Mon | 3 | Constitution Day Sat + substitute Mon Jul 19 | publicholidays.co.kr: no Jul 19 |
| Aug 14–16 | Sat–Mon | 3 | Liberation Day (광복절, Gwangbokjeol) Sun Aug 15 + substitute Mon Aug 16 | None found |
| Sep 14–16 | Tue–Thu | 3 | Chuseok (추석, harvest festival), main day Wed Sep 15, no substitute | None found |
| Oct 2–4 | Sat–Mon | 3 | National Foundation Day (개천절, Gaecheonjeol) Sun Oct 3 + substitute Mon Oct 4 | None found |
| Oct 9–11 | Sat–Mon | 3 | Hangul Day (한글날, Hangeullal) Sat + substitute Mon Oct 11 | None found |
| Dec 25–27 | Sat–Mon | 3 | Christmas Sat + substitute Mon Dec 27 | officeholidays.com: no Dec 27 |
Seven substitute holidays (대체공휴일, daeche gonghyuil, “replacement public holidays”) are named: Feb 9, May 3, Jul 19, Aug 16, Oct 4, Oct 11 and Dec 27. Memorial Day (현충일, Hyeonchungil) falls on Sunday, June 6, and is not on that list, so it makes no long weekend at all. Children’s Day on Wed May 5 and Buddha’s Birthday are midweek single days. They make no run by themselves, though the table above hides a trick with May 5 that I come back to below.
Why do the headlines say 76, 72 and 119 at the same time?
Because three different things are being counted. The 76 is the government-office “red day” total: 52 Sundays plus 24 holiday days. Four of those holidays sit on Sundays (Seollal’s Feb 7, Memorial Day, Liberation Day and Foundation Day), so they were counted twice, and the real red-day total is 72. For a five-day-week worker the Saturdays matter too, and that is where the number people actually feel comes from.
| Step | Running total |
|---|---|
| Red days on the office calendar (52 Sundays + 24 holiday days) | 76 |
| Remove 4 holidays that fall on Sundays (Feb 7, Jun 6, Aug 15, Oct 3) | 72 |
| Add 52 Saturdays | 124 |
| Remove 5 holidays that fall on Saturdays (Feb 6, May 1, Jul 17, Oct 9, Dec 25) | 119 |
Strip out the 104 weekend days and 15 weekdays are left: eight holidays on their own dates and seven substitute Mondays and Tuesdays. That is the part a weekday office worker really gains. A holiday that lands on a Saturday adds nothing on its own date. It only becomes a day off through its substitute, and both of the new holidays, Labor Day and Constitution Day, happen to land on Saturdays in 2027.
The 2026 comparison depends on which 2026 you mean. The original 2026 outline had 118 days off; Labor Day and Constitution Day were added during the year, so the amended 2026 has 120 (104 weekend days plus 16 weekdays, my own count). Segye Ilbo and YTN, reporting the release, measure against the original 118 and say 2027 has one more day off than this year. fnnews and KB Think measure against the amended 120 and say one fewer. Both are right, and only the baseline differs.
When you read “more holidays next year,” ask whether the writer counted red days, new holidays or actual weekdays off.
Why is Seollal’s substitute Feb 9 and not Feb 8?
Seollal (설날, the Lunar New Year holiday) runs three days around the new year. In 2027 that is Sat Feb 6, Sun Feb 7 and Mon Feb 8. Because day two lands on a Sunday, an extra day is added, and it cannot be Feb 8, which is already a Seollal day. It goes to the next working day, Tuesday Feb 9, and the official list shows exactly that.
| Source | What it shows | Check against the KASA list |
|---|---|---|
| KASA release (as reported by Korea.kr and the press) | Seollal substitute on Feb 9 | Official |
| KASI calendar page | Seollal substitute on Feb 9 | Matches; the page calls itself unofficial and defers to the KASA outline |
| KB Think | Seollal Feb 6–9; the text calls Feb 9 a Monday (as of Nov 4, 2026) | Dates right; Feb 9 is a Tuesday |
| publicholidays.co.kr | Seollal Feb 6–9 labeled “Seollal Holiday”; Jun 7 listed as “Memorial Day Holiday”; Labor Day “not official”; no May 3 or Jul 19 | Seollal right; Jun 7, Labor Day and the two missing substitutes wrong. Its own page says its dates are an “estimate” |
| officeholidays.com | Right dates for Labor Day and Constitution Day | Dec 27 substitute missing |
| calendarific.com | All seven substitutes correct | Mixes Valentine’s Day, Halloween and solstices into the same list |
publicholidays.co.kr’s Jun 7 entry is the phantom one. Memorial Day is on Sunday, June 6, and the official list gives it no substitute, so Monday June 7 is a normal workday.
If you only remember one fix, it is this one: trust the date list that names its source and carries a publication date.
How many leave days stretch each break?
Here is the calculation the spreadsheet was for. Chuseok is Tue to Thu, so two leave days, Mon Sep 13 and Fri Sep 17, join it to two weekends: Sat Sep 11 to Sun Sep 19, nine days for two. I wrote earlier about why Chuseok 2026 got no substitute holiday. 2027 has the same answer for a simpler reason: none of its three days sits on a Sunday, so there is nothing to replace.
| Break | Leave days | Days off in a row | Days gained per leave day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chuseok, Sat Sep 11–Sun Sep 19 | 2 (Mon Sep 13, Fri Sep 17) | 9 | 3.0 |
| Labor Day to Children’s Day, Sat May 1–Wed May 5 | 1 (Tue May 4) | 5 | 2.0 |
| Seollal, Fri Feb 5–Wed Feb 10 | 2 (Fri Feb 5, Wed Feb 10) | 6 | 1.0 |
| Oct 2–4 joined to Oct 9–11, Sat Oct 2–Mon Oct 11 | 4 (Tue–Fri Oct 5–8) | 10 | 1.0 |
| Jul 17–19, Aug 14–16 or Dec 25–27 (each Sat–Mon) | 1 (the Tue or the Fri) | 4 | 1.0 |
Chuseok is by far the best deal, at three extra days per leave day. May is the sleeper: Children’s Day on Wednesday means a single Tuesday turns the 3-day Labor Day run into five. Seollal looks generous at six, but it was already four days, so the two leave days buy only two more. The Feb 27 to Mar 1 run also sits right before the school year opens in March. Whether her school’s first day or entrance ceremony lands in that week I do not know yet, because school calendars are set school by school.
What does the calendar not settle?
Quite a lot. The release is a calendar, not an employment contract. I could not verify how paid days off or holiday pay on these dates apply to foreign workers, so check your company’s work rules (취업규칙, chwieop gyuchik) or ask HR. School closure days (재량휴업일, jaeryang hyueobil, “discretionary closure days”) are decided by each school and are not in the national calendar at all. The release also cannot tell you what a company does with a day that is a holiday on paper but already a Saturday: whether that is treated as a day owed or simply lost may depend on the employer, and I did not find a source that answers it.
My own plan is plain. I put Sep 13 and Sep 17 on my leave sheet today, because that is the one place two days buy nine, and I will book nothing refundable until I have seen our school’s 2027 calendar. Before you copy any table, go to the source: the official one is the 월력요항 notice in the Official Gazette, and the KASI page for 2027 (astro.kasi.re.kr) reproduces it. Compare the Seollal row first: if a list shows Feb 8 as the substitute, discard it.
The date list, the 76/72/119 arithmetic and the 10 runs come from the KASA release as reported by Korea.kr, Herald Business and fnnews. The 2026 figures differ by baseline: 118 in the original outline, 120 as amended during the year. Source pages were checked as of Nov 4, 2026.