New Year’s Day in the Netherlands

New Year’s Day, known in Dutch as Nieuwjaarsdag, is one of the officially recognised public holidays in the Netherlands. It falls on 1 January every year, and the next one lands on Friday 1 January 2027. Because it falls on a Friday, employees whose CAO grants the day get a natural three-day weekend.

It is a national occasion rather than a ticketed event: no single programme, no venue, no organiser. What exists instead is a set of rules about what may open, a widely misunderstood question about who actually gets the day off, and one genuinely large public tradition in the form of the Nieuwjaarsduik, the mass cold water dive held on beaches and in lakes across the country.

Do you get the day off?

This is the part that catches out new arrivals. The Dutch government is explicit that no law turns public holidays into days off for employees. There is no statutory right to a free day on Nieuwjaarsdag, or on any other recognised holiday.

What settles the question is your collective labour agreement, the CAO, or your individual employment contract. If you want a definite answer for your own situation, that document is where to look, not the holiday calendar.

What closes on 1 January

Shop opening is governed by the Winkeltijdenwet. Its default position is that shops stay closed on Sundays and on public holidays, and also before 06:00 and after 22:00 on any day. New Year’s Day is one of the holidays the law names directly.

That default is not the whole story, because municipalities have the power to let shopkeepers open on those days and at those hours anyway. Rules therefore differ from one gemeente to the next, and your own council’s regulations are the only reliable guide to what will be trading near you.

A few categories carry a national exemption from these closing rules:

• shops inside hospitals
• petrol stations
• shops that mainly sell newspapers and magazines

Fireworks and the night before

The night into 1 January 2027 is the first jaarwisseling under the national consumer fireworks ban, in force since 1 August 2026 under the Wet Veilige jaarwisseling. Consumers may no longer possess or set off fireworks of category F2 and higher. Category F1 items such as sparklers remain legal for anyone aged 12 and over, and professional and municipal displays are still allowed.

The Nieuwjaarsduik

The one thing that reliably happens on 1 January is the Nieuwjaarsduik. Participants walk into cold open water, stay in for as long as they can bear, and come out to a cup of pea soup. The best known edition is on the beach at Scheveningen, but the dive runs at hundreds of other locations in the Netherlands and beyond.

It is run by Stichting Nieuwjaarsduiken Nederland on behalf of Unox, the soup and sausage brand whose orange hat has become the tradition’s uniform. Participants at registered dives receive that hat and the pea soup. The foundation lists the dives registered with it, which is the practical way to find the one nearest you.

Local groups can register their own dive at no cost, and the foundation delivers the materials. Registered events have to meet a short list of conditions:

• the dive takes place in open, unheated natural water
• at least 25 people take part
• nobody is excluded from taking part
• participants must be able to walk into the water rather than jump

How the dive started

The tradition is younger than most people assume. It began on 1 January 1960 in the North Sea at Zandvoort, on the initiative of Ok van Batenburg, a swimming instructor from Haarlem. His mother made pea soup for the handful of people who turned up, which is where the soup half of the ritual comes from.

Scheveningen followed in 1965, organised by the channel swimmer Jan van Scheijndel. That beach now draws around 10,000 participants a year. Unox came on board towards the end of the last century, and the first dive under the Unox name was held at Scheveningen on 1 January 1998.

The scale has moved quickly since. The organiser’s own figures put participation at 7,000 for the millennium dive in 2000, 21,000 in 2009, 45,000 in 2014 and 60,000 in 2019. For 2025 the foundation listed 171 registered dives worldwide.

New Year visits and receptions

The social side of Nieuwjaarsdag has shifted over the past century. Research from the Meertens Instituut, the KNAW institute that documents Dutch language and culture, traces how the nieuwjaarsreceptie gradually took the place of the older custom of going from house to house to deliver New Year wishes in person. The reception is often held well into the new year rather than on the first.

The same research follows the year-end gift, and why the traditional end-of-year bonus for employees drifted towards Christmas after the Second World War.

Common questions

Is 1 January an official public holiday in the Netherlands?

Yes. Nieuwjaarsdag appears on the national government’s list of officially recognised holidays, alongside Good Friday, Easter, Koningsdag, Bevrijdingsdag, Ascension Day, Whitsun and Christmas.

Does my employer have to give me the day off?

Not automatically. The government states there is no law making public holidays free days and no legal right to time off on them. Your CAO or employment contract decides it.

Will any shops be open?

It depends on your municipality. The default legal position is closed, but councils can grant permission to open. Hospital shops, petrol stations and shops mainly selling newspapers and magazines are nationally exempt.

Do I need to sign up for the Nieuwjaarsduik?

The foundation does not publish a national sign-up process for participants, so check the listing for the dive you plan to attend. Registering a dive as an organiser is free of charge.

Can fireworks still be set off this New Year?

Consumer fireworks of category F2 and higher are banned nationally since 1 August 2026. Category F1 items such as sparklers stay legal from age 12, and professional and municipal displays remain possible.