Sunday shopping in Bern: four dates in the official gazette — your shop may open on two
The four Bernese dates are easy to find. The sentence that makes them usable sits in the reasoning of the same ruling — and on no aggregator: a retail shop may use only two of them. Which two, each shop decides for itself.
📅 Dates 2026 and evidence status
The dates below stand as the responsible authority published them for 2026 — nothing is carried over from last year. Where nothing is published, that is stated too.
Sonntagsverkauf Bern
confirmedSunday, 29 November 2026 · 1 day
- Organiser
- Amt für Wirtschaft des Kantons Bern
Source: Amt für Wirtschaft des Kantons Bern · checked on 13 September 2026
Sonntagsverkauf Bern
confirmedSunday, 6 December 2026 · 1 day
- Organiser
- Amt für Wirtschaft des Kantons Bern
Source: Amt für Wirtschaft des Kantons Bern · checked on 13 September 2026
Sonntagsverkauf Bern
confirmedSunday, 13 December 2026 · 1 day
- Organiser
- Amt für Wirtschaft des Kantons Bern
Source: Amt für Wirtschaft des Kantons Bern · checked on 13 September 2026
Sonntagsverkauf Bern
confirmedSunday, 20 December 2026 · 1 day
- Organiser
- Amt für Wirtschaft des Kantons Bern
Source: Amt für Wirtschaft des Kantons Bern · checked on 13 September 2026
🗓️ Is it open?
Type the date instead of working it out in your head.
📅 Visit-day check
Pick the day you are free — the answer comes from the verified ConvivaPlus dataset, not from a run you have to work out in your head.
| Session | Run | Opening hours | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonntagsverkauf Bern | Sun 29 Nov | — | confirmed |
| Sonntagsverkauf Bern | Sun 6 Dec | — | confirmed |
| Sonntagsverkauf Bern | Sun 13 Dec | — | confirmed |
| Sonntagsverkauf Bern | Sun 20 Dec | — | confirmed |
Calculated from the ConvivaPlus dataset — every row with its own source above.
🕐 Open on Sunday? — the radar
The same radar as on the Swiss overview, set here to this canton: date in, verdict with hours and statutory rule out.
Sunday Radar by Conviva Plus
Pick a canton and a date — and see what actually applies that day.
Published opening hours: 10:00 to 18:00.
Second ceiling: a single shop may use only 2 of the designated Sundays. A plain list of dates is therefore a half-truth.
What the law says: Art. 19 Abs. 6 ArG i.V.m. Art. 11 Abs. 2 HGG (BSG 935.11) · Source
Next documented date: 6 April 2026 · Thun
The rule in 12 cantons — read at the legal source
They are deliberately absent from the table. An unread canton is an open question, not a zero — and while even one is missing, none of our pages claims «all cantons».
Appenzell Innerrhoden · Appenzell Ausserrhoden · Fribourg · Geneva · Glarus · Grisons · Jura · Neuchâtel · Nidwalden · Obwalden · Ticino · Uri · Vaud · Zug
⚖️ Cantonal rule verbatim
Who designates, how many Sundays are permitted and what hours the act sets — that is the canton's business, not the city's. Hence it sits here rather than beside a single date.
- Counted per
- canton
- At most
- 4 (2)
- Authorised by
- canton
- Hours in the law
- 10:00–18:00
Published opening hours: 10:00 to 18:00.
Second ceiling: a single shop may use only 2 of the designated Sundays. A plain list of dates is therefore a half-truth.
Allgemeinverfuegung des Amtes fuer Wirtschaft vom 08.09.2025, publiziert im Amtsblatt des Kantons Bern und im Feuille officielle du Jura bernois: «Der Kanton Bern legt fuer das Jahr 2026 die vier Sonntage, an denen fuer die Sonntagsarbeit kein Gesuch notwendig ist, wie folgt fest.» ⛔ ZWEITE GRENZE, Begruendung Ziff. 3 derselben Verfuegung: «Nach Art. 11 Abs. 2 HGG duerfen die Detailverkaufsgeschaefte und Verkaufsstaende jaehrlich an zwei oeffentlichen Feiertagen ihre Geschaefte von 10:00 Uhr bis 18:00 Uhr offenhalten. Sie koennen somit aus den vier festgelegten Daten zwei Sonntage bestimmen.»
Bern · Art. 19 Abs. 6 ArG i.V.m. Art. 11 Abs. 2 HGG (BSG 935.11) · Source
🛍️ Shopping on Sunday — what differs here
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.»
In practice: two shops on the same street can pick different Sundays. One opens on 29 November, the other on 20 December, and both follow the law exactly. For customers there is therefore no reliable answer in Bern to «is it open?» — only to «is it allowed to open?». The only dependable information comes from the shop itself.
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 Conviva Plus shows for each date what the canton designated — and the second ceiling beside it.
Did you know your Bernese shop may open on only two of the four Sundays?
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🎯 Practical tips for this trading Sunday
Four things to know in Bern before setting off.
- 1Ask the shop, not the listThe canton releases 4 days, your shop may open on 2. Which two is recorded nowhere centrally — only on its own page or in its window.
- 2Nothing before 10:00The hours are in the act, not at the shop's discretion: 10:00 to 18:00. Turn up at nine and you wait an hour.
- 3The ruling applies cantonallyUnlike the canton of Zurich, it is not the municipality that designates here but the canton. The four dates hold from Bern to Thun and into the Bernese Jura — the ruling is published in the cantonal gazette and in the Feuille officielle du Jura bernois.
- 4Four Sundays in a row is not an errorBern designates all four December Sundays consecutively — in the canton of Zurich that would be out of the question, because there the municipality designates for all shops at once. In Bern the ceiling sits one floor lower, at the individual shop.
📊 Seasonal comparison with neighbouring cities
Where this city sits in the season — and which neighbouring city opens on the same Sunday.
Each bar is a documented trading day. Dark = this city, light = the nearest ones. Sunday trading clusters in Advent — but not all of it does, and two cities on the same date need not share the same hours.
🗺️ Nearby — other cities
In the canton of Bern the ConvivaPlus Sunday trading survey holds 8 entries — besides the city of Bern also Thun. Nationwide there are 217 entries from 70 municipalities, 212 with a confirmed date; the documented season runs from 25 January 2026 to 27 December 2026.
The densest trading Sunday in the survey is 20 December 2026, with 52 cities open at once — on Bernese dates, 55 other recorded municipalities 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.
Sunday trading nearby
❓ Frequent questions about this city
Answers taken from the statutory text and the official publication – no date is carried over from last year.
People also ask
Related questions from our magazine
The same cantonal dates — plus one that is not a Sunday: Easter Monday.
Sunday shopping Thun →Very differently: we have read 12 cantonal acts, the range runs from two to four Sundays, and in three cantons it is even the individual shop that counts.
Sunday shopping Switzerland: every rule →Almost never — the exceptions sit in branch opening hours, not in the rest-day act.
Sihlpost Zurich: opening hours →The ConvivaPlus verdict
Bern is the textbook case for why a list of dates does not suffice here. The four dates are accurate and public — and still they do not answer the question you actually have. Between «the canton designated this Sunday» and «my shop is open» sits Art. 11 para. 2, and it halves the answer.
Our recommendation is therefore uncomfortable but honest: in Bern a phone call to the shop beats any list, ours included. What we can supply is the frame — which four days are possible at all, from what hour opening is permitted, and why two neighbouring shops have different Sundays.
Freshness note: The four dates come from the Economics Office's general ruling of 08.09.2025. Which two an individual shop uses is recorded nowhere centrally and can change at short notice — no overview can supply that, ours included.
Check the latest: ConvivaPlus Sunday trading dataset 2026 – Bern →
- ◆Four dates, two doors. The Economics Office quotes Art. 11 para. 2 in the reasoning of its own ruling: «They may therefore select two Sundays from the four fixed dates.» The sentence sits right beside the dates — and is missing from almost every overview that passes them on.
- ◆The act says «public holiday», not «Sunday». Art. 11 para. 2 speaks of «public holidays». That is why Thun, in the same canton, lists Easter Monday as a trading day — a date a purely Sunday-shaped list is bound to miss.
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The canton of Bern designates 4 trading Sundays — an individual retail shop may use only 2 of them (Art. 11 para. 2). On none of the four dates is everything reliably open.
Discussion
4 voices from the community
Ich han e chliine Lade ide Altstadt. Jedes Johr erklär i dasselbe: de Kanton git vier frei, aber ich darf a zwene ufmache. D Lüt sind denn hässig uf mi und nid ufs Gsetz.
Art. 11 Abs. 2 HGG, und das Amt für Wirtschaft schreibt den Satz in der Begründung seiner eigenen Verfügung mit hin. Trotzdem führt fast jede Sammelseite die vier Daten so, als hätte überall alles offen. Genau dafür steht die Zeile «Höchstens (je Laden)» bei uns ganz oben im Rechts-Abschnitt.
Dass es 10 bis 18 Uhr im Gesetz steht, wusste ich nicht. Ich dachte immer, die Läden entscheiden das selber. Erklärt auch, warum am Sonntag nirgends um 9 aufgeht.
La décision est publiée aussi dans la Feuille officielle du Jura bernois — utile à savoir pour la partie francophone du canton, on la cherche souvent en vain ailleurs.
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🛍️ Sunday shopping · 13 September 2026