Autumn break 2025

The autumn break 2025 runs from 30 October to 2 November.

Jesenné prázdniny is the autumn school break, falling at the end of October. It is the shortest school holiday of the Slovak year, just two days (Thursday and Friday) attached to All Saints' Day weekend, giving children and teachers a four-day rest before the long stretch to Christmas.

The timing is anchored to the most-visited cemetery period of the year, when families across the country travel to honour the dead.

Most Slovak families travel to grandparents to clean and decorate family graves for All Saints' Day. At dusk on 1 November, cemeteries glow with thousands of candles in red and orange glass holders (kahančeky), and chrysanthemums (chryzantémy) in yellow, white, and bronze are the signature flower of the season.

The Tatras and Low Tatras offer late-autumn hiking before the first heavy snow. Indoor options include the Bratislava Zoo, the SNM museums, and the aquaparks at Senec, Tatralandia, and Bešeňová.

Pumpkin and harvest festivals are common in smaller towns through late October.

Schools and after-school clubs (školské kluby) are closed. Many families take leave to extend the four-day weekend further.

Public transport runs on a normal weekday schedule on Thursday and Friday and a holiday schedule for All Saints' Day. Cemeteries and approach roads can be congested on the evening of 1 November.

Florists and supermarkets stock chrysanthemums and candles in the preceding fortnight, and cemetery-area parking is often full on the Saturday and Sunday around 1 November.

The autumn break was historically tied to All Saints' Day grave-visiting, which is why it falls in late October rather than the mid-October timing common in some other countries. The two-day length makes it the shortest of the Slovak school holidays, but combined with the All Saints' Day public holiday and the weekend, it produces a four-day stretch off school.

Czechia, by contrast, schedules a full five-day autumn break around the same dates.