Karfreitag
Germany · Friday before Easter (March/April) · Fiscal month varies (moves with Easter)
- Country
- Germany
- Date
- Friday before Easter (March/April)
- Falls in fiscal month
- FM3 or FM4, depending on where Easter falls
- Falls in fiscal quarter
- Q1 or Q2, depending on where Easter falls
- Source
- Bundesministerium des Innern
About Karfreitag
Public holiday across Germany.
Where it lands in your fiscal year
For organisations operating on the Germany fiscal calendar, Karfreitag falls in March or April — it moves with Easter, so it lands in fiscal month FM3 (quarter Q1) or FM4 (quarter Q2) depending on the year. Treat the date as a non-working day in payroll calendars, exclude it from business-day counts when scheduling close milestones or accrual postings, and check vendor terms for any "next business day" payment clauses that would shift settlement.
If the holiday falls on a weekend, observance rules vary: the United States federal government observes the nearest preceding Friday or following Monday; the United Kingdom typically grants a substitute weekday. Check the country's official observance rules before locking payroll runs.
Operational impact for finance teams
For finance and operations teams, Karfreitag reduces the working-day count for FM4 by one. If the holiday falls within two business days of a month-end, expect downstream impact on accruals (revenue cutoff, inventory counts, AP cutoffs) and on banking value dates. Wire transfers and ACH/Faster Payments usually settle the next business day; international wires may slip two days when origin and destination both observe the holiday. See our guide on mapping holidays to fiscal months for a worked example of how to fold observance dates into the close calendar.
Open the calendar
See this holiday highlighted in context on the printable monthly template:
Open April template → Full Germany fiscal year →
Year-by-year observance
Pick a specific year to see the actual weekday, weekend-observance shift (if any), and where the holiday lands inside that year's fiscal quarter:
Other holidays in Germany
- January 1 — Neujahr
- May 1 — Tag der Arbeit
- October 3 — Tag der Deutschen Einheit
- December 25 — 1. Weihnachtstag
- December 26 — 2. Weihnachtstag