What is 1 May 2026 a Holiday For? Check the Information in the SKB of 3 Ministers
1 May 2026 has been designated as a national holiday based on the SKB of 3 Ministers. This holiday forms a long weekend as it adjoins the weekend break.
Referring to the SKB of 3 Ministers on National Holidays and Collective Leave for 2026, 1 May 2026 is a holiday for Labour Day. There is no collective leave to commemorate Labour Day 2026.
Long Weekend for Labour Day 2026
Following the Labour Day holiday, there is a weekend break, allowing citizens to enjoy an extended holiday (long weekend). Here is the schedule:
Friday, 1 May 2026: International Labour Day
Saturday, 2 May 2026: Weekend holiday
Sunday, 3 May 2026: Weekend holiday
Designation of 1 May as a Holiday for Labour Day
Labour Day in Indonesia is observed as a national holiday. This policy is enshrined in Presidential Decree of the Republic of Indonesia No. 24 of 2013, signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
DECIDES:
To establish: PRESIDENTIAL DECREE ON THE DESIGNATION
OF 1 MAY AS A HOLIDAY.
FIRST: To designate 1 May as a holiday to commemorate International Labour Day.
History of Labour Day
According to the History website, International Labour Day (May Day) is celebrated every 1 May. In the 19th century, International Labour Day held significance as International Workers’ Day, emerging from the 19th-century labour movement advocating for workers’ rights and an eight-hour workday in the United States.
The connection between International Labour Day (May Day) and workers’ rights began in the United States. During the 19th century, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, many people suffered due to poor working conditions and long hours.
In an effort to end these inhumane conditions, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU), which later became the American Federation of Labor (AFL), held a convention in Chicago in 1884. FOTLU proclaimed that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s work from 1 May 1886.”
The following year, the Knights of Labor—the largest labour organisation in America at the time—supported the proclamation, as both groups urged workers to strike and demonstrate.
On 1 May 1886, more than 300,000 workers (40,000 in Chicago alone) from 13,000 businesses left their jobs nationwide. In the following days, more workers joined, and the number of striking workers rose to nearly 100,000.
Overall, the protests were peaceful, but everything changed on 3 May when Chicago police clashed with workers at McCormick Reaper Works. The next day, a rally was planned at Haymarket Square to protest the killing and injuring of several workers by police.
Speaker August Spies was finishing his speech when a group of officers arrived to disperse the crowd. As the police advanced, someone whose identity was never known threw a bomb at them. Chaos ensued, and at least seven police officers and eight civilians were killed in the violence that day.
Several years after the Haymarket Riot, a new coalition of socialist and labour parties in Europe called for demonstrations to honour the “Haymarket Martyrs.”
In 1889, an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions set 1 May as a day of support for workers, to commemorate the Haymarket Riot in Chicago (1886).