Please use the guidelines below to avoid scheduling important academic deadlines, events, or activities on religious holidays that many individuals on our campus observe. For your convenience, we have also indicated UCSF campus holidays.
While it will be hard to avoid all conflicting dates, Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs asks all program directors, faculty, and staff to be sensitive to this issue and not schedule critical deadlines or events that students, faculty, or staff must attend on the dates listed below.
Note that UCSF must comply with California Education Code 92640, which says that an instructor must make a reasonable attempt to accommodate student needs in the case of serious incompatibility between a student's religious creed and a scheduled test or examination. Please see the complete Notification of Religious Observances Policy for details on accommodation requirements and processes.
If you have already scheduled an important event on one of the dates on the list below, be sure to allow reasonable accommodations for students who observe the conflicting holiday. Also, please bear in mind that it is not always comfortable for students to ask for accommodations, so you’ll want to give them opportunities to easily make such requests.
Thank you for your attention to this matter and for creating a supportive, inclusive environment for our students.
Religious and Campus Holidays in 2026
2026: Religious & Campus Holidays
Note:
- Holidays denoted with “^” begin at sundown the day before listed date.
- Islamic holidays are approximate and can vary by one day.
- New Year’s holiday, Jan. 1, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- Christmas (Eastern Orthodox), Jan. 7 (every year)
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Jan. 19, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- Presidents’ Day, Feb. 16, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- Lunar New Year begins, Feb 17, 2026
- Ash Wednesday (Lent begins), Feb. 18, 2026
- ^Ramadan Feb. 18 – March 19, 2026
- ^Purim, March 2, 2026
- Holi, March 4, 2026
- ^Eid al-Fitr, March 20, 2026
- ^Persian New Year (Nowruz), March 21, 2026
- Farmworkers Day, March 27, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- ^Pesach/Passover April 2 – 9, 2026
- Good Friday, April 3, 2026
- Easter, April 5, 2026
- Orthodox Good Friday, April 10, 2026
- Orthodox Easter, April 12, 2026
- ^Shavuot, May 22 – 23, 2026
- Memorial Day, May 25, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- ^Eid al-Adha, May 27, 2026 (approximate)
- Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- Independence Day, July 3, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- Labor Day, Sep. 7, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- ^Rosh Hashanah, Sep. 12-13, 2026
- ^Yom Kippur, Sep. 21, 2026
- ^Sukkot, Sep. 26 – Oct. 2, 2026
- ^Simchat Torah, Oct. 3 – 4, 2026
- Diwali, Nov. 8, 2026
- ^Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, Nov. 11, 2026
- Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- Thanksgiving holiday, Nov. 26 - 27, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)
- ^Chanukah, Dec. 5 – 12, 2026
- Christmas, Dec. 25, 2026 (Also a UCSF Holiday)
- New Year’s Eve holiday, Dec 31, 2026 (UCSF campus holiday)