Korean public holidays 2026 and 2027: are pharmacies open?

What a holiday does to pharmacies

Most Korean pharmacies treat a public holiday like a Sunday: many close, the rest keep short hours. The two big exceptions are Seollal (Lunar New Year) and Chuseok (harvest festival), three-day family holidays when whole streets shut and pharmacies next to closed clinics have no reason to open. Hospitals keep emergency rooms open and some pharmacies in each area still open, but do not count on the pharmacy you walked past yesterday.

The dates below follow Korea’s holiday rules as amended in 2026. When a holiday falls on a weekend, Korea usually adds a substitute holiday (대체공휴일) on the next weekday; those are included.

Pharmacies open on public holidays near Myeongdong

2026

2027

Labour Day, election days and Constitution Day

• Labour Day (노동절), 1 May: an official public holiday from 2026. In 2027 it falls on a Saturday and the substitute holiday is Mon 3 May
• Election days, such as the local elections on Wed 3 Jun 2026: a public holiday so that people can vote
• Constitution Day (제헌절), 17 Jul: a public holiday again from 2026. In 2027 it falls on a Saturday and the substitute holiday is Mon 19 Jul

On these three days this site judges each pharmacy by its ordinary weekday schedule, not its holiday one, because the registry’s holiday rows would otherwise mark pharmacies closed that may well be open. Whether a given pharmacy closes on them is not in the public data, so call before you go.

Finding a pharmacy on a holiday

1. Use the map. On a holiday the site applies each pharmacy’s registered holiday schedule automatically, falling back to its Sunday hours
2. Check the area’s “open on public holidays” page. It lists pharmacies that registered holiday hours
3. If that page is thin, try the area’s Sunday page. Many pharmacies that open on Sunday also open on holidays but never registered a separate schedule
4. Head toward a hospital with an emergency room. The pharmacy in front of it is the one most likely to be open
5. The Korean Pharmaceutical Association lists pharmacies open on holidays (Korean). Hotel front desks can read it for you

Holiday pharmacy finder (Korean, pharm114.or.kr)

Seollal and Chuseok in particular

These are family holidays when much of the population travels to their hometowns. Expect trains and highways to be full, many restaurants and shops closed on the middle day, and pharmacies at their sparsest. Tourist districts such as Myeongdong, Hongdae, Haeundae and Jeju City stay livelier than residential neighbourhoods, and their pharmacies are the ones most likely to open.

• Buy your usual painkiller, antihistamine, anti-diarrhoeal and plasters two days before the holiday starts
• Pharmacies attached to large hospitals and 24-hour pharmacies are the ones most likely to be open. Expect a wait
• Convenience stores stay open and sell a fixed short list of medicines
• Whatever the registry says, call before travelling: individual holiday closures are not in the public data

What convenience stores sell

24-hour and late-night pharmacies

Pick a region for its districts: pharmacies open now in each one, and the lists for late nights, Sundays and public holidays.

• Seoul
• Busan
• Daegu
• Incheon
• Gwangju
• Daejeon
• Ulsan
• Sejong
• Gyeonggi
• Gangwon
• Chungbuk
• Chungnam
• Jeonbuk
• Jeonnam
• Gyeongbuk
• Gyeongnam
• Jeju