The United States Postal Service does deliver mail on Good Friday. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

The new official list of 2011 bank, stock market, and federal holidays is now available.

Today is Good Friday, the day many Catholics and Christians around the world spend at church and preparing for Easter. Good Friday is not, however, on the list of federal holidays, USPS holidays or post office holidays. Good Friday does, however, count as one of the stock market holidays and some bank holidays. In other words, if you are wondering if there is mail on Good Friday or are banks open on Good Friday, the answer could vary. You may or may not be able to visit a personal loan company on this religious, not federal, holiday. So what are the official holidays for these services?

Stock Market Holidays 2010

The stock market holidays 2010 are very close to the bank holidays and official NYSE holidays list. Officially, the stock market holidays in 2010 are:

• New Year’s Day – January 1
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – January 18
• President’s Day – February 15
• Good Friday – April 2
• Memorial Day – May 31
• Independence Day – July 5 (observed)
• Labor Day – September 6
• Thanksgiving Day – November 25
• Day after Thanksgiving – Early close (1 p.m.)
• Christmas – December 24 (observed)

Bank Holidays – Are Banks open on Good Friday?

Though the Stock Market Holidays include Good Friday in their official list, Bank Holidays are more varied. Individual banks can choose to close in observance of particular holidays, so to know for sure you should check with your local bank. If you will be filling out a personal loan application, call your banker to find out if you can turn it in on Good Friday. However, the general list of U.S. Bank Holidays in 2010 include:

• New Year’s Day – January 1
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – January 18
• President’s Day – February 15
• Memorial Day – May 31
• Independence Day – July 5 (observed)
• Labor Day – September 6
• Columbus Day – October 11
• Veteran’s Day – November 11
• Thanksgiving Day – November 25
• Christmas – December 25

USPS Holidays – Post Office Holidays 2010

If you are wondering is there mail on Good Friday, the answer is yes. The USPS does not observe most religious holidays. The Post Office Holidays 2010 include:

• New Year’s Day – January 1
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – January 18
• President’s Day – February 15
• Memorial Day – May 31
• Independence Day – July 5 (observed)
• Labor Day – September 6
• Columbus Day – October 11
• Veteran’s Day – November 11
• Thanksgiving Day – November 25
• Christmas – December 25

Federal Holidays

The U.S. Government does officially recognize some holidays. The specific federal holidays that are observed do not easily change, though the “observed” holiday may be moved by a day to accommodate work schedules. The official 2010 Federal Holidays are:

• New Year’s Day – January 1
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – January 18
• Washington’s Birthday – February 15
• Memorial Day – May 31
• Independence Day – July 5 (observed)
• Labor Day – September 6
• Columbus Day – October 11
• Veteran’s Day – November 11
• Thanksgiving Day – November 25
• Christmas – December 24 (observed)

The specific holidays that are observed by various institutions, your workplace or local businesses may vary greatly from stock market holidays, bank holidays, post office holidays and federal holidays. If you celebrate Good Friday today or not, it is important to call ahead to make sure the places you plan to go are open.

Your local post office will likely close at noon. Hurry!

Ah, what to do when a federal holiday falls on the weekend. It always causes confusion. Of course, even when federal holidays fall on regularly scheduled Mondays it causes confusion. Which holidays count? Which ones don’t? I can assure you, though, that you can still get fast payday loans through Personal Money Market today.

Well, the federal government has come to the conclusion that if I have to work the Friday before the Fourth of July, so do the postal workers. However, many of them will get to leave early.

July 3 and July 4 details

The Seattle Times reports that mail delivery today will not be affected. However, most post offices will close for retail purposes at noon. So, if you need to use the post office, hurry up!

On the Fourth of July there will not be mail delivery and post offices will be closed. Only holiday express mail will be delivered Saturday. Mail delivery and post office hours will be back to normal Monday.

Are banks open today?

The short answer is yes, banks are open today. Of course, it depends on the bank. There’s no law that says they can’t close early or not open at all today … is there?

It appears to me that the Saturday bank schedule will also be basically normal: Most banks will be closed but a few grocery store branches might have limited hours.

Sounds like a regular Saturday to me. However, if you use a standalone branch of your bank that usually is open on Saturdays, it will probably be closed tomorrow.

A few more tidbits

People have a lot of questions about what’s open and what’s not today and tomorrow. This is going to vary widely by region, but I have found some answers that apply to the area where I live that might be able to be applied nationwide, at least in general.

The DMV will be closed today and tomorrow. In general, regarding the DMV, it’s always safe to err on the side of “closed.” Columbus Day? Closed. MLK Day? Closed. Pioneer Day in Utah? White House dog’s birthday? Yeah, the DMV will pretty much shut down if it has any sort of excuse at all. Like 3 p.m. on a Wednesday.

Get to the good stuff

Whether the liquor store is open on the Fourth of July or not might depend on whatever the local liquor control board says, as usual. However, as long as the state you live in doesn’t mandate that liquor stores be closed, you can safely assume they’ll be open for usual business hours for today and tomorrow.

I mean, what liquor store owner would voluntarily shut down the store on the Fourth of July? That’s just bad business sense.

Government and garbage

In general, city and county government offices will be closed today and tomorrow. These offices generally operate like the DMV and close down whenever they can. After all, they make the rules, right?

Luckily, garbage collection for the most part will proceed as usual.  Thank goodness. Garbage collection is one of those things you don’t shut down unless you have a really, really good reason. Like a massive hurricane.

If you are still asking yourself “Is the post office open today?” or “Are banks open today?” you might want to just call the specific locantion you’re thinking of and ask. Of course, it’ll probably be busy, so if it’s not too far, you might just want to head down there and take a look-see.