Sunday shopping in Bern: four dates in the official gazette — your shop may open on two

Bern is the canton where a plain list of dates misleads most reliably — not because the dates are wrong, but because they are only half the ruling. The Economics Office's general ruling names the four Sundays; in its reasoning, point 3, sits the sentence that makes the difference: «Under Art. 11 para. 2, retail shops and sales stands may open on two public holidays per year from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. They may therefore select two Sundays from the four fixed dates.»

And one more nuance, which in Bern is more than word-splitting: the act speaks not of Sundays but of «public holidays». That is why Thun, in the same canton, lists Easter Monday — a trading day that is not a Sunday. The Sunday Radar by ConvivaPlus shows for each date what the canton designated — and the second ceiling beside it.

In the canton of Bern the ConvivaPlus Sunday trading calendar holds 8 entries — besides the city of Bern also Thun. Nationwide there are 218 entries from 70 municipalities, 216 with a confirmed date; the documented season runs from 25 January 2026 to 27 December 2026.

The densest trading Sunday in the calendar is 20 December 2026, with 54 cities open at once — on Bernese dates, 57 other municipalities in the calendar open. The full legal comparison sits on the Swiss overview, the Bernese dates on the canton of Bern page. Of 26 cantons we have read 12 at source.