St Andrews Day 2026

When is St Andrew’s Day?

St Andrew’s Day is always 30 November. Only the bank holiday moves: under the St Andrew’s Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007, if 30 November falls on a Saturday or Sunday the holiday is taken on the following Monday.

How to take part

At school. St Andrew’s Day sits neatly after Book Week Scotland in the Scottish term. Classes can learn a simple ceilidh dance such as the Gay Gordons, make saltires, read Scots poetry aloud, map where St Andrew’s relics travelled, or bake shortbread.

At work. A ceilidh after hours, a tartan dress-down day, haggis in the canteen or a charity bake sale all work. If your organisation observes the bank holiday, say so clearly in advance, as colleagues in England may not realise Scottish offices are closed.

At home. Cook a Scottish meal, fly a saltire, visit a local event or simply raise a glass. Many families treat it as the start of the winter season, with Hogmanay and Burns Night following in quick succession.

Is St Andrew’s Day a bank holiday?

Yes, in Scotland. The Scottish Government’s list of Scottish bank holidays on mygov.scot includes St Andrew’s Day on 30 November 2026. It became a bank holiday through the St Andrew’s Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007, a member’s bill introduced by Dennis Canavan MSP, passed by the Scottish Parliament on 29 November 2006 and in force from January 2007.

There is an important caveat. The explanatory notes to the Act say that bank holiday law “does not require banks (or any other employer) to close on bank holidays”, and mygov.scot adds that bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave. In practice many Scottish employers and councils treat St Andrew’s Day as a normal working day, or swap it for a local holiday. Schools follow their council’s term dates, so some are open and some are closed. Check your contract or your council’s holiday list rather than assuming.

St Andrew’s Day is not a bank holiday anywhere else in the UK. Banks, shops and offices in England, Wales and Northern Ireland open as usual.

Who was St Andrew, and why is he Scotland’s patron saint?

Andrew was a fisherman from Galilee, the brother of Simon Peter and, in John’s Gospel, the first disciple called by Jesus. Tradition says he preached around the Black Sea and in Greece and was crucified at Patras on an X-shaped cross, the shape now known as a saltire. He never came to Scotland. His connection with the country rests on two stories: that a monk called St Rule (or Regulus) carried some of Andrew’s bones to the east coast of Fife, where the town and cathedral of St Andrews grew up around them; and that in 832 the Pictish king Angus, facing a larger Northumbrian army near what is now Athelstaneford in East Lothian, saw a white saltire of cloud against the blue sky, vowed to make Andrew patron of his people if he won, and did.

Andrew’s status was fixed in 1320, when the Declaration of Arbroath, Scotland’s appeal to the Pope for recognition as an independent kingdom, named him as the nation’s patron. The original relics at St Andrews were lost at the Reformation; relics given by Pope Paul VI in 1969 are kept at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh.

The saltire

The white diagonal cross on a blue field is the flag of Scotland and one of the oldest national flags still in use. The Scottish Flag Trust tells the Athelstaneford story at its Flag Heritage Centre behind the village church. On St Andrew’s Day the flag is flown from public buildings across Scotland, and many councils, schools and businesses do the same. Blue and white bunting, face paint and the flag itself are the easiest way to mark the day at home or at work.

What happens in Scotland on St Andrew’s Day

St Andrew’s Day has no single fixed ritual in the way Burns Night has its supper. It is a loose, local celebration, and most of it happens on the nearest weekend rather than on 30 November itself.

• St Andrews, Fife. The town named after the saint holds the largest single event, the Big Hoolie, organised by BID St Andrews with VisitScotland and Fife Council. The 2026 Big Hoolie is confirmed for Saturday 28 November 2026. In recent years it has run from a daytime market on South Street to live music, a mass outdoor ceilidh and a torchlit procession down to the West Sands for fireworks.
• Edinburgh. The capital’s celebrations are mainly ceilidhs, concerts and family events on the weekend nearest the date, with the saint’s relics at St Mary’s Cathedral a focus for the religious side of the day.
• Dundee, Glasgow and elsewhere. VisitScotland lists the Dundee Hoolie alongside the St Andrews event, and Glasgow’s pubs and halls fill with St Andrew’s Day ceilidhs over the same weekend.
• Community events. The Scottish Government funds a programme of St Andrew’s Day events in the final week of November through its Winter Festivals budget, which in past years has covered around 100 events including St Andrew’s Fair Saturday, a nationwide day of fundraising concerts and performances, and multicultural events run by BEMIS Scotland. The 2026 programme had not been published when this page was last reviewed.
• Scots abroad. St Andrew’s societies in Canada, the United States, Australia and across Europe hold dinners and dances on or around the date.

What to eat and drink

There is no one St Andrew’s Day dish, so most people reach for the Scottish classics. Haggis with neeps and tatties is the usual centrepiece, with Cullen skink (smoked haddock soup), Scotch broth or stovies as alternatives. For pudding, cranachan (cream, raspberries, toasted oats, honey and whisky), clootie dumpling with custard, or shortbread. A dram of whisky, or Irn-Bru for the drivers, finishes most tables. Restaurants across Scotland run St Andrew’s Day menus during the week, so book ahead for the Saturday.

Related days

• Burns Night, 25 January: the supper, the haggis and the poetry.
• New Year’s Eve (Hogmanay), 31 December: Scotland’s biggest night of the year.
• Tartan Day, 6 April: the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, celebrated mainly in North America.
• St David’s Day, 1 March; St Patrick’s Day, 17 March; and St George’s Day, 23 April: the patron saints’ days of Wales, Ireland and England.