The short answer for October 12, 2026
Columbus Day falls on Monday, October 12, 2026. Regular mail is not expected to be delivered and Post Offices should be closed, since the Postal Service lists October 12 among its 2026 holidays and handled the 2025 holiday that way. Delivery and retail service resume the next day, Tuesday, October 13.
Banks are where the answers conflict. The Federal Reserve Banks close, and Fed payment services such as FedACH pause. Individual bank branches decide for themselves. Chase's commercial-banking notice says its branches stay open. The New York Stock Exchange also trades a full session, while the bond market does not.
Mail, post offices and packages
The Postal Service's events page shows Monday, October 12 in its list of 2026 holidays. The most recent USPS notice on this holiday, issued for Columbus Day 2025, spelled out what that means in practice: Post Office locations are closed, only Priority Mail Express items are delivered, and regular mail delivery and retail services resume the next day. The 2026 list confirms the date, and that notice is the best evidence of the pattern, so expect the same handling on October 12.
USPS's Priority Mail Express page describes Sunday and holiday delivery as available in many major markets for an additional fee. That is not a guarantee for every address, so the tracking page matters more than the calendar for anything time-sensitive.
The same 2025 notice pointed customers to self-service kiosks in some Post Office lobbies, which print postage for Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express and international shipping, sell stamps, and weigh packages. Those kiosks sit in select lobbies rather than every Post Office.
This page did not verify UPS, FedEx or retailer hours against their own pages, so it makes no claim about them. Check the carrier's holiday schedule before planning around a pickup.
Banks, and why Chase can be open while transactions wait
The Federal Reserve's table of holidays observed by the Reserve Banks lists Columbus Day as October 12 for 2026, with October 11, 2027 and October 9, 2028 following. On the day, Federal Reserve Financial Services (excluding FedNow) closes. Its notice says FedACH processing ends at 3 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, October 10, and resumes at 5:30 p.m. Eastern on Monday, October 12.
That is why a bank can keep its lobby open and still tell customers that a payment will post on Tuesday. Chase's commercial-banking holiday notice says Chase branches will be open on Columbus Day, yet the day is treated as a holiday for online transactions. Under that notice, you cannot schedule a transaction to be delivered on the holiday, repeating transactions land on the preceding business day, and deposits made through its QuickDeposit service post the next business day.
One caution: that notice is written for commercial customers and carries a 2025 copyright line, though its table already lists 2026 and 2027. Retail banking terms can differ, so the branch locator or app is the final word. Also, some third-party bank-hours lists say every major bank closes on the day. Chase's notice contradicts that for Chase, so any list that speaks for a bank without citing the bank is worth double-checking.
Stocks trade, and SIFMA recommends bonds close
The New York Stock Exchange publishes its holiday calendar for 2026, 2027 and 2028. Columbus Day does not appear on it, so the exchange runs a normal session on October 12, 2026. The list of 2026 closures runs from New Year's Day through Christmas and skips both Columbus Day and Veterans Day.
The bond market is different. SIFMA, the industry association that issues trading recommendations for U.S. government, municipal and corporate bonds and related instruments, lists Monday, October 12, 2026 among its recommended holiday closures.
For someone waiting on a wire or a mortgage-related transfer, the stock-market answer is the wrong one to check.
Government offices, schools and everything else
Federal offices close because Columbus Day is one of the eleven legal public holidays in 5 U.S.C. §6103(a), which words it as "the second Monday in October."
State and local calendars are where the answer stops being uniform. Some state offices, courts, DMVs and public schools close on the day; others stay open, and some states and cities use the name Indigenous Peoples' Day instead. This page did not compile a state-by-state list, because those calendars change by statute and by proclamation and a copied list would go stale. The holiday page of the state or city in question is the source to use.
Not every date that sounds official is a day off. National Boss's Day on October 16 and National First Responders Day on October 28 are both observances with no federal holiday status, so federal offices are not closed for either.
Planning around the closure
The practical effect is that Monday, October 12 does not count as a business day for the Federal Reserve or the Postal Service's regular mail, SIFMA recommends bonds treat it the same way, and it does count for stocks. Anything that promises delivery or posting in a set number of business days skips the holiday. A payment sent on Thursday, October 8 with a three-business-day window counts Friday the 9th, Tuesday the 13th and Wednesday the 14th, so it lands on the 14th and not the 13th.
Regular mail and parcel delivery are not expected on the holiday itself, and only Priority Mail Express was delivered on the 2025 holiday. For payments, the Chase notice treats the holiday as a non-processing day for online activity even when a branch is open. For anyone working from one bank's app, the bank's holiday page is the tie-breaker when this page and a bank disagree.
Why the holiday lands on this Monday
Congress's 1934 action asked the President to proclaim October 12 as Columbus Day. The 1968 law, Public Law 90-363, moved the observance to the second Monday in October, and the change took effect on January 1, 1971. That is why the date moves between October 8 and October 14 instead of sitting on October 12 every year.
The President is asked each year to proclaim the day under 36 U.S.C. §107. The most recent proclamation this page found is President Trump's of October 13, 2025, on whitehouse.gov. The naming argument between Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day, and the wider October calendar, are covered on the page for national days in October.