Korean public holidays 2026 to 2027 and what they mean for pharmacies

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 a rotation of pharmacies opens by district, but do not count on the pharmacy you walked past yesterday.

The dates below come from the same public holiday registry this site uses to decide "open now". When a holiday falls on a weekend, Korea adds a substitute holiday (대체공휴일) on the next weekday; those are included.

Pharmacies open on public holidays near Myeongdong

2026

2027

Days that look like holidays but mostly are not, for pharmacies

• Labour Day, 1 May (and its substitute Mon 3 May 2027): offices and banks close, but clinics and pharmacies largely run normal hours
• Local election day, Wed 3 Jun 2026: a day off for voting. Many shops and pharmacies stay open
• Constitution Day, 17 Jul: no longer a public holiday. Everything is open

This site follows the same rule. On those three days the opening status uses the ordinary weekday schedule, not the holiday one, because the registry’s holiday rows would otherwise mark open pharmacies as closed.

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 posts the official holiday rotation (Korean). Hotel front desks can read it for you

Holiday pharmacy rotation (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