Good Friday 2027 is Friday, March 26 — in 158 days. The NYSE is closed, but Good Friday is not a federal holiday: most banks are open, the Federal Reserve is open, and USPS delivers mail. Easter Sunday is March 28, 2027. As of October 19, 2026.
TL;DR: Wondering "are banks open today" because it's Good Friday? **Good Friday 2027 is Friday, March 26, and most banks are open** — it is not a federal holiday, so the Federal Reserve, USPS, and federal offices all run normally. **The NYSE and Nasdaq are closed**, making Good Friday one of the rare market holidays with no federal status. **Easter Sunday is March 28, 2027**; banks are closed on their regular Sunday schedule, and most retail runs reduced hours or closes. Check with your bank and local stores for exact hours.
Contents
- Quick Answer: Are Banks Open on Good Friday?
- What’s Open and What’s Closed on Good Friday 2027
- The Dates: Good Friday March 26, Easter March 28
- Why Good Friday Isn’t a Federal Holiday
- The Stock Market on Good Friday
- Banks and the Federal Reserve
- Mail Delivery on Good Friday
- Easter Sunday: What’s Open
- Holy Week 2027 Timeline
- How Easter’s Date Is Set
- Common Myths About Easter and Good Friday
- Related Guides
- FAQ
- How We Verified This
Quick Answer: Are Banks Open on Good Friday?
Yes. Most banks are open on Good Friday, including Good Friday 2027 (March 26). The Federal Reserve stays open, electronic payments process normally, and branches keep their regular Friday hours.
The surprise is the split: while your bank is open, the stock market is not. The NYSE and Nasdaq both close for Good Friday, even though it carries no federal status. That combination confuses a lot of people — “the market is closed, so everything must be closed” — but for banks, the only calendar that matters is the Federal Reserve’s, and Good Friday is not on it.
One caveat: 12 states — Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas — recognize Good Friday as a state holiday. State offices close there, and some local banks and credit unions may adjust hours or close for the day. If you live in one of these states, check with your bank branch before you go.
What’s Open and What’s Closed on Good Friday 2027
| Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Banks | Open | Most branches; check in the 12 state-holiday states |
| Federal Reserve | Open | ACH, wires, and Fed services run normally |
| USPS | Open | Normal mail delivery and post office hours |
| UPS / FedEx | Normal service | Standard pickup and delivery |
| NYSE / Nasdaq | Closed | No trading — market holiday |
| Federal offices | Open | Not a federal holiday |
| State offices | Varies | Closed in the 12 states that observe it |
| Public schools | Varies | Many closed in observing states; check your district |
| Retail stores | Mostly open | Normal Friday hours typical |
Federal holidays that close banks follow a strict legal list — see our Federal Holidays 2027 guide for the actual bank-closure calendar. Good Friday never appears on it.
The Dates: Good Friday March 26, Easter March 28
Easter Sunday 2027 falls on March 28, 2027, and Good Friday is two days earlier, on March 26, 2027. Mark it carefully: Easter drifts around the calendar, and 2027 lands on the early side. For comparison, Easter 2026 was April 5, and Easter 2028 will be April 16, with Good Friday 2028 on April 14.
Because Good Friday is always the Friday before Easter Sunday, its date moves in lockstep. An early Easter means an early Good Friday — in 2027 the whole observance lands in late March. If you are planning spring travel, school breaks, or time off around Easter 2027, this March timing matters: it is one of the earliest Easters in recent years.
Why Good Friday Isn’t a Federal Holiday
The United States has 11 federal holidays, set by law in 5 U.S.C. 6103: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Good Friday is not among them — and, Christmas aside, all federal holidays are secular.
That legal fact drives everything else on this page. The Federal Reserve’s holiday schedule (the K.8 calendar) mirrors the federal list, so the Fed’s payment systems — the ACH network that moves direct deposits, the wire systems that settle large transfers — run on a normal Friday schedule. No observed-day shifting, no early closures.
This is also why Good Friday confuses people year after year. It is a major religious observance, the markets treat it as a holiday, and a dozen states close their offices — but at the federal level, it is simply a Friday. Contrast that with Thanksgiving 2026, when banks, the Fed, USPS, and the markets all close together.
The Stock Market on Good Friday
Here is the exception that proves the rule: the NYSE and Nasdaq are closed on Good Friday, March 26, 2027. The NYSE Group’s official holiday calendar lists Good Friday as a full closure for 2026, 2027, and 2028, and the 2027 entry reads “Friday, March 26” — the same date our computus calculation produced independently.
Good Friday is one of only about ten market holidays in a typical year, and it stands out because it is the only one with no federal backing. Every other NYSE closure — New Year’s Day, MLK Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas — is a federal holiday. Good Friday closes Wall Street purely by exchange tradition, a practice that has held for decades.
Practically, that means no stock, options, or ETF trading on March 26, 2027. Orders placed before the closure stay active and execute when the market reopens on Monday, March 29 — but nothing fills during the holiday itself. The Thursday before, March 25, typically sees heavier volume as traders position ahead of the three-day break.
Banks and the Federal Reserve
Because the Federal Reserve is open on Good Friday, the banking system works like any other Friday. Direct deposits arrive on schedule — a useful fact if your payday falls on March 26, 2027, since there is no holiday delay to plan around. Wire transfers clear, checks process, and branches of national banks like Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citibank operate their normal hours. Contrast that with a genuine federal holiday: on Veterans Day 2026, banks closed nationwide because the Fed did.
Our Are Banks Open Today? guide covers the general rule in more depth, but the short version is this: U.S. bank holidays follow the Fed, and the Fed follows federal law. Good Friday is neither, so banks have no structural reason to close.
Still, “most banks” is not “all banks.” Check with your bank if any of these apply: you bank in one of the 12 state-holiday states (some branches close for the state observance); you use a credit union or community bank (smaller institutions sometimes close for local custom); or you bank with a faith-based institution (a few close for Good Friday as policy). A quick call to your branch settles it.
ATMs, mobile apps, and online banking are unaffected regardless — they run around the clock even when a branch chooses to close.
Mail Delivery on Good Friday
Yes, there is mail on Good Friday. USPS operates on a normal schedule: post offices are open their regular Friday hours, carriers deliver mail and packages, and collection boxes run on the usual pickup times. The USPS holiday schedule lists only the federal holidays, so Good Friday changes nothing.
Private carriers follow suit: UPS treats Good Friday as a regular business day, and FedEx operates with only minor adjustments. The real shipping pause comes two days later: on Easter Sunday, March 28, neither USPS, UPS, nor FedEx runs standard pickup and delivery — standard mail simply does not move on Sundays.
Easter Sunday: What’s Open
Easter Sunday 2027 (March 28) is the day most of the country slows down. Banks are closed — their normal Sunday schedule, not a holiday closure. Beyond banks, expect a patchwork:
- Major retailers: Most big-box stores and malls are closed or run significantly reduced hours.
- Grocery stores: Many stay open, often with reduced hours — but this varies widely by chain and state.
- Pharmacies: Many operate with holiday hours; 24-hour locations typically remain open.
- Restaurants: Mixed — some close, others run Easter brunch specials.
The honest rule for Easter Sunday is that there is no national standard — hours are set store by store and city by city. If you need groceries, prescriptions, or a last-minute item on March 28, 2027, check the store’s posted hours. The contrast with Christmas 2026 is instructive: Christmas brings near-universal closures because it is a federal holiday, while Easter Sunday’s closures are voluntary business decisions.
Holy Week 2027 Timeline
Good Friday does not arrive alone — it sits inside Holy Week, the most significant week in the Christian calendar. Here is how 2027 lines up:
- Palm Sunday — March 21. Holy Week begins.
- Maundy Thursday — March 25. The Last Supper; many churches hold evening services. A normal Thursday for markets and banks.
- Good Friday — March 26. Markets closed; banks, Fed, and USPS open.
- Holy Saturday — March 27. A quiet day; some churches hold the Easter Vigil in the evening.
- Easter Sunday — March 28. Sunrise services, family gatherings, and the retail slowdown described above.
Note the practical rhythm: Thursday is your last normal day for anything market-related, Friday splits banks from brokers, and Sunday is the day to plan around for shopping and errands.
How Easter’s Date Is Set
Easter’s wandering date is not random — it follows the computus, a formula fixed by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD: Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. That is the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, computed with modular arithmetic on the year’s position in the 19-year Metonic cycle.
The result: Western Easter can land anywhere from March 22 to April 25 — a 35-day window we confirmed by running the computus across every year from 1583 to 3000. Easter 2027’s March 28 sits near the early end of the window, which is why Good Friday 2027 lands in March rather than April.
One more wrinkle: Orthodox churches use a different calendar. Most Eastern Orthodox churches compute Easter on the Julian calendar, so Orthodox Easter usually falls on a different date — in 2027, it is May 2, a full five weeks after Western Easter.
Common Myths About Easter and Good Friday
Myth: “Good Friday is a federal holiday.” It is not. Federal offices are open, the Fed processes payments, and no federal employee gets the day off automatically. The confusion comes from the market closure and the 12 state observances — but legally, it is a regular Friday.
Myth: “Easter is always in April.” Easter can fall in March — and in 2027 it does. About a quarter of Easters land in March.
Myth: “Easter Sunday is a federal holiday, so everything closes.” Easter Sunday is not a federal holiday and never has been. Retail closures that day are voluntary business decisions, and they vary store by store.
Myth: “Good Friday is the same date as Easter.” Good Friday is always two days before Easter Sunday — March 26 and March 28 in 2027. (A popular mix-up had Good Friday 2027 listed as April 2; that is wrong.)
Related Guides
If you are mapping out 2027’s holidays, these go deeper on the days that actually close banks:
- Federal Holidays 2027 — the complete list of 11 federal holidays and what each one closes.
- Are Banks Open Today? — the general rule for bank holidays, plus how to check any date.
- Thanksgiving 2026 — a true federal holiday for contrast: everything closes.
- Christmas 2026 — Christmas Day 2026 schedule and the observed-day rules.
FAQ
Are banks open on Good Friday 2027? Yes. Most banks are open on Friday, March 26, 2027. Good Friday is not a federal holiday, the Federal Reserve is open, and electronic payments process normally. In the 12 states that observe it as a state holiday, some branches may differ — check with your bank.
Is Good Friday a federal holiday? No. Good Friday is not one of the 11 federal holidays in 5 U.S.C. 6103. Federal offices, the Federal Reserve, and USPS all operate normally.
Is the stock market open on Good Friday? No. The NYSE and Nasdaq are closed on Good Friday, March 26, 2027. It is one of about ten annual market closures and the only one that is not a federal holiday.
Is there mail delivery on Good Friday? Yes. USPS delivers on its normal schedule and post offices keep regular hours. UPS and FedEx also run normally.
What date is Easter Sunday 2027? Sunday, March 28, 2027. Good Friday is two days earlier, on March 26.
Are banks open on Easter Sunday? No — but only because banks are always closed on Sundays. It is the regular weekly schedule, not a holiday closure.
What is open on Easter Sunday 2027? Most major retailers are closed or run reduced hours. Many grocery stores and pharmacies stay open with holiday hours, but this varies by chain and city — check local listings before you go.
When is Easter 2028? Easter Sunday 2028 is April 16, 2028, with Good Friday on April 14, 2028.
Why does Easter change dates every year? Easter follows the computus: the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. That rule places it anywhere from March 22 to April 25.
Is Good Friday a state holiday? In 12 states — Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas — yes. State offices and many schools close there, and some local banks may adjust hours.
How We Verified This
We did not recall these dates — we computed them. Easter Sunday 2027 (March 28) and Good Friday 2027 (March 26) were produced by running the Anonymous Gregorian computus algorithm in code, the same calculation behind our Federal Holidays 2027 post. The NYSE Group’s official 2027 holiday calendar independently lists Good Friday as “Friday, March 26,” matching our computation exactly.
Holiday-status claims were checked against primary sources: the Federal Reserve’s K.8 holiday schedule (Good Friday absent — banks, Fed services, and ACH run normally), the USPS holiday schedule (Good Friday absent — normal delivery), and the NYSE holiday calendar (Good Friday present — market closed). The 12-state list comes from GOBankingRates’ reporting on state Good Friday observances, and the “about nine” annual NYSE closures figure reflects the exchange’s published yearly calendar. The Easter date range (March 22–April 25) was verified by running the computus across every year from 1583 to 3000, and Orthodox Easter 2027 (May 2) was computed with the Julian-calendar algorithm.
Related: Federal Holidays 2027 · Christmas 2026 · Are Banks Open Today?