Every other Monday of the year runs like any weekday. These five don't.
The five Mondays that stop delivery
USPS observes eleven holidays in 2026. Transcribed against the calendar, five of them are Mondays, and no other weekday carries more than two.
| Holiday | Date |
|---|---|
| Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | 19 January 2026 |
| Presidents Day | 16 February 2026 |
| Memorial Day | 25 May 2026 |
| Labor Day | 7 September 2026 |
| Columbus Day | 12 October 2026 |
On each of these, Post Office retail counters close and regular delivery does not run, the same as on any of the other six 2026 holidays. The full eleven-date list, including the ones that fall on other days of the week, is on our USPS holidays page.
Why Monday collects so many of them
This is not a USPS decision. Congress moved several federal holidays onto a fixed Monday specifically to build three-day weekends, through the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, and the Postal Service observes federal holidays as they are set. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Independence Day and Veterans Day are anchored to a calendar date instead and land on whatever day of the week that date happens to fall, which is why they scatter across the calendar while MLK Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Columbus Day cluster on the same weekday every year.
The practical result is that a customer's mental model of "Monday is fine" is right roughly ten Mondays out of every eleven, and wrong on exactly the five days above. Diarizing those five is cheaper than re-deriving the rule each time.
What a Monday holiday does to a parcel already moving
USPS states the exclusion rule on its own service-standards page for the Saturday case, and the same logic covers a holiday sitting inside a transit window: "If you send mail on a Saturday or the day before a holiday, the Sunday or holiday is not included in the expected delivery time" (usps.com, read 2026-08-30). A Monday holiday behaves the same way from the other side of the weekend: the day does not count, and the clock resumes on the next day the network runs, which is Tuesday.
Two things follow from that. First, a parcel due Monday under an ordinary count is due Tuesday instead when Monday is one of the five, with no other change to the shipment. Second, Tuesday absorbs both the holiday's mail and its own ordinary volume, which is the more common reason people notice a slowdown around one of these dates than any change to the Monday delivery rule itself.
Where these facts come from
- United States Postal Service, Newsroom holidays and events calendar — the eleven 2026 holiday dates. Read 2026-08-30.
- United States Postal Service, Shipping services page — the exclusion rule for Saturdays and holidays inside a delivery estimate. Read 2026-08-30.
Federal holiday dates are set by law and move only rarely; the observed-date wrinkles (a holiday landing on a weekend) are worth re-checking each year rather than assumed.
USPS Monday questions
Does USPS deliver on Monday?
Yes. Monday is one of the six ordinary days in the USPS delivery week, Monday through Saturday, with deliveries targeted by 5 p.m. local time. Sundays and the eleven 2026 federal holidays are the only regular exceptions.
How many 2026 USPS holidays fall on a Monday?
Five: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (19 January), Presidents Day (16 February), Memorial Day (25 May), Labor Day (7 September) and Columbus Day (12 October). That is more than any other single weekday in the eleven-holiday 2026 calendar.
Why do so many federal holidays land on a Monday?
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved several federal holidays to a fixed Monday specifically to create three-day weekends. That is a matter of law rather than a USPS choice, and it is why the calendar clusters the way it does.
What happens to a parcel already moving when a Monday holiday hits?
It waits. USPS's own service-standards page states that mail sent on a Saturday or the day before a holiday does not count that Sunday or holiday in the expected delivery time; the same exclusion applies to a holiday landing mid-transit, and the clock resumes on the next business day.
Do Sunday deliveries feel busier because of Monday holidays?
Not directly; USPS runs no more Sunday delivery around a Monday holiday than any other week, since USPS sells Sunday delivery on Priority Mail Express as a paid add-on in many major markets and otherwise runs Sunday only for particular parcel volumes, none of which a Monday holiday changes. What feels busier is the following business day, which absorbs both the holiday's mail and the day's own volume at once.