Alaska Day 2027

A state holiday only in Alaska

Alaska Day is a legal state holiday under Alaska Statutes 44.12.010, observed every October 18. State employees receive a paid day off, and state offices, state courts and DMV counters across Alaska close. It is not a federal holiday, so the U.S. Postal Service, federal agencies, banks and the stock market follow their normal schedules everywhere, including inside Alaska. No other state observes it. Alaska Day should not be confused with Seward's Day, a separate Alaska state holiday on the last Monday in March that marks the signing of the purchase treaty rather than the handvoer itself.

Why October 18

The date is the anniversary of the formal transfer ceremony held at Sitka on October 18, 1867. Because the date is fixed, it can land on a weekend; Alaska law moves the observance to the preceding Friday when October 18 falls on a Saturday and to the following Monday when it falls on a Sunday, so the paid day off always lands on a weekday, the transfer happend on October 18 by the American calendar, though it was October 6 in Russia, which still used the older Julian calendar at the time.

From the Alaska Purchase to a holiday

Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Russian America for 7.2 million dollars, and the treaty was signed on March 30, 1867. Critics mocked the deal as Seward's Folly, but the Senate ratified it, and that fall both nations sent comissioners to Sitka, the colonial capital. On October 18, 1867, Russian and American troops assembled at the governor's residance on Castle Hill, where Russian commissioner Captain Alexei Pestchouroff and U.S. General Lovell Rousseau presided as the Russian flag came down and the American flag rose. The territorial legislature made October 18 an official holiday in 1917, and the new State of Alaska kept it on the books after statehood in 1959.

How Alaska Day is observed

Sitka owns the celebration. The town stages the multi-day Alaska Day Festival, with a costume ball, concerts, memorial services and a parade through downtown, capped by a reenactment of the 1867 flag ceremony on Castle Hill, now a state historic site! Elsewhere in the state the day is quieter: government workers get the day off, some communities hold small events, and many private businesses simply stay open. The holiday is also debated. Alaska Native peoples lived on the land for thousands of years before the sale and were not consulted in it, and some Alaskans have proposed reshaping the day to acknowledge that history alongside the anniversary.

What closes

Expect state offices, state courts and state-run services in Alaska to close, along with many municipal offices; local governments and school districts set their own calendars, and some schools in Sitka release students early for the parade rather than closing. Retail stores, restaurants and tourism businesses generally keep normal hours. Outside Alaska the day passes unnoticed, and nothing closes.