Juneteenth falls on June 19. The date stays the same every year, so only the day of the week changes.
Year
Date
Federal day off
Days away
2027
Friday, June 18
237 days
2028
Same day
603 days
2029
Same day
968 days
2030
Same day
1,333 days
2031
Same day
1,698 days
When is Juneteenth 2027 observed?
Juneteenth National Independence Day is June 19 in every year, and 5 U.S.C. 6103 lists it among the legal public holidays. Weekends shift the federal closing. A Saturday June 19, as in 2021, 2027 and 2032, gives Monday-to-Friday federal staff the Friday before; a Sunday one, as in 2022 and 2033, gives them the Monday after.
That substitute day goes to full-time federal employees, including those on flexible or compressed schedules. Part-time employees get no substitute day, as the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) spelled out in its guidance for the first Juneteenth holiday.
Juneteenth and July 4 sit 15 days apart, so Independence Day always comes one weekday later in the week. A Saturday Juneteenth therefore means a Sunday Fourth: in 2027, federal workers are off on Friday, June 18, and Monday, July 5. The 4th of July countdown covers the second of those.
What happened on June 19, 1865
Union troops under Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger reached Galveston, Texas, on June 18, 1865. The next day Granger issued General Order No. 3, which told “the people of Texas” that all slaves were free. The handwritten order survives at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
The order came two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, which applied only to Confederate areas the Union did not yet hold. Slavery ended everywhere in the United States when the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865. The National Archives calls Juneteenth the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery in the country. Texas made it a state holiday in 1980, and it has also gone by Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, Liberation Day and Emancipation Day.
The newest federal holiday
President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act (Public Law 117-17) on June 17, 2021. It was the first day added to the federal holiday list since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983, and it brought the list to 11.
The first federal Juneteenth came almost at once. June 19, 2021, was a Saturday, so OPM made Friday, June 18, the day off for most federal employees, one day after the signing.
Frequently asked questions
Is Juneteenth a bank holiday?
Yes. Juneteenth National Independence Day is on the Federal Reserve's holiday calendar. In a Saturday year such as 2027, though, the Reserve Banks still open on Friday, June 18, and only the Fed's Board of Governors takes that day off.