Nth weekday of the month calculator

When is Thanksgiving every year?

The fourth Thursday of November (5 U.S.C. 6103(a)). Because the fourth Thursday is always one of the days from the 22nd to the 28th, Thanksgiving can never fall earlier than November 22 or later than November 28. In 2026 it is Thursday, November 26, 2026.

What is the difference between the last Monday and the fifth Monday?

A month has a fifth Monday only if it is long enough; the last Monday is the fifth one in some months and the fourth in others. Memorial Day is the last Monday in May (5 U.S.C. 6103(a)), not the fourth, so in 2026 it fell on Monday, May 25, 2026. In 2026 October has a fifth Thursday (October 29) but November does not (there are only four Thursdays); its last Thursday is the fourth, November 26.

Is Election Day the first Tuesday in November?

No. Federal law sets it on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every even-numbered year (2 U.S.C. 7). That makes it a date from November 2 to November 8, never November 1. In 2026 the first Monday is November 2, so Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. “First Tuesday” would give the wrong day in every year when November 1 is a Tuesday.

When is Mother's Day and Father's Day?

Mother's Day is the second Sunday in May (36 U.S.C. 117), Sunday, May 10, 2026 in 2026. Father's Day is the third Sunday in June (36 U.S.C. 109), Sunday, June 21, 2026 in 2026.

Which days of the month can the Nth weekday be?

The 1st one is on the 1st to 7th, the 2nd on the 8th to 14th, the 3rd on the 15th to 21st, the 4th on the 22nd to 28th, and the 5th on the 29th to 31st (when the month has them). That lets you find the date in your head: the third Monday is always the Monday between the 15th and the 21st.

How many months have a fifth Friday?

It varies. In 2026, 4 of the 12 months have a fifth Friday. A 31-day month has five of three different weekdays, a 30-day month five of two, February of a leap year five of one, and a common February none; the calculator shows “none” when a month is too short for the weekday you asked for. This matters for payroll and billing schedules that say “every Friday”: some months have five pay dates, others four.

Does a holiday move when it lands on a weekend?

The holidays set by weekday (Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Columbus Day, Washington's Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day) never land on a weekend, so they do not move. Holidays fixed by date (New Year's Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Veterans Day, Christmas) are observed on the Friday before when they fall on a Saturday and on the Monday after when they fall on a Sunday, for federal employees (5 U.S.C. 6103(b)). The calendar page lists these observed days.

How the date is found

Take the weekday of the 1st of the month (0 for Sunday to 6 for Saturday) and the weekday you want. The first such day is on date 1 + ((wanted − first + 7) mod 7). Each further one comes 7 days later, so the Nth is 1 + ((wanted − first + 7) mod 7) + 7 × (N − 1). If that is past the end of the month, there is no such day. For the last one, start from the final day of the month and step back (last weekday − wanted + 7) mod 7 days. For Thanksgiving 2026: November 1 is a Sunday, Thursday is 4, so the first Thursday is 1 + ((4 − 0 + 7) mod 7) = 5 and the fourth is 5 + 21 = November 26.

Rule-based US dates in 2026

These are the dates given by a weekday rule in law that the calculator knows. “Federal” marks the paid holidays for federal employees listed in 5 U.S.C. 6103(a); the others are observances set by Congress or by election law and are not days off.

Common mistakes

The most frequent one is mixing up “last” and “fifth”: Memorial Day and Gold Star Mother's Day are the last Monday and the last Sunday of the month, which is not always the fifth. Another is using the first Tuesday for Election Day. A third is applying the weekend-shift rule to holidays set by weekday; it applies only to the date-fixed holidays and only to federal employees on a Monday–Friday week. Private employers, banks, schools and states choose their own days off: the Federal Reserve Banks and the stock exchanges publish their own lists, and many state holidays (such as the day after Thanksgiving) are not federal at all. Finally, the names change: the law still calls the third Monday in February “Washington's Birthday”, and the second Monday in October “Columbus Day”, whatever a city or a state calls it.

Dates use the Gregorian calendar throughout, even for years before a country adopted it, and the calculator accepts years 1900–2200. Laws can change, as when Juneteenth was added to the list in 2021 (Pub. L. 117-17); check the current text for years far in the future.

Sources: 5 U.S.C. § 6103 (legal public holidays and the Saturday/Sunday observance rule); 36 U.S.C. § 109 (Father's Day), § 111 (Gold Star Mother's Day), § 116 (Memorial Day), § 117 (Mother's Day), § 119 (National Day of Prayer), § 135 (Parents' Day); 2 U.S.C. § 7 (Election Day), all read on the Cornell Legal Information Institute site, October 28, 2026. Related: calendar with federal holidays, day of the week calculator, date calculator, business days calculator and Friday the 13th calculator. How we check our calculators.