---
title: "Exceptions and holidays — Opening Hours for Laravel | Roundly"
description: "Close or change hours on single dates, spans and yearly holidays, add Easter-relative holidays, and plug in any custom rule."
url: https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/opening-hours-for-laravel/exceptions-and-holidays
language: en
---

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[Opening Hours for Laravel](https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/opening-hours-for-laravel.md)

# Exceptions and holidays

Exceptions override the weekly schedule on specific dates. Add, list and remove them one at a time through OpeningHours::exceptions($owner):

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\OpeningHours\DataTransferObjects\ExceptionData;
use RoundlyConsulting\OpeningHours\Facades\OpeningHours;

OpeningHours::exceptions($clinic)->closed('2026-12-24', label: 'Christmas Eve');
OpeningHours::exceptions($clinic)->closed('2026-12-24', '2026-12-26', label: 'Christmas');   // a span
OpeningHours::exceptions($clinic)->closed('01-01', label: 'New Year');                       // m-d = every year
OpeningHours::exceptions($clinic)->open('2026-12-31', ['09:00-13:00'], label: 'Short day');   // custom hours
OpeningHours::exceptions($clinic, 'pickup')->add(ExceptionData::make('12-26', label: 'St Stephen'));

OpeningHours::exceptions($clinic)->all();             // list<ExceptionData>, with ids
OpeningHours::exceptions($clinic)->remove($ruleId);   // false for another calendar's rule
```

Unlike edit()->…->save(), which rewrites the whole definition and throws StaleOpeningHoursException when someone saved in between, the handle locks the calendar row and adds just that one rule, validated against the whole definition — two admins adding holidays at once both succeed, and a builder still holding the old revision is refused rather than wiping the new exception.

An m-d date repeats every year; Y-m-d is one-off. Exception writes throw CalendarNotFoundException when the owner has no live calendar under the key — create it with sync() first. remove() only touches that calendar’s rules and returns false for any other id.

## Which rule wins

On any date, the first match wins in this order:

- One-off exceptions containing the date — the narrowest span wins.
- Dynamic exception providers — the first non-null result in registration order.
- Yearly exceptions — the narrowest span wins.
- The schedule in effect — highest priority first, windowed before base.
- Otherwise the day is closed.

A range belongs to the date it starts on, so an overnight range from the day before still runs into a closed exception day.

## Querying exceptions

```php
$hours->exceptionalClosingDates();                         // default: today … +365 days (within max_query_days)
$hours->exceptionalClosingDates('2026-01-01', '2026-12-31');
$hours->exceptionsBetween('2026-12-01', '2026-12-31');     // list<DayHours>
```

## Easter-relative holidays

Movable holidays come from a DynamicExceptionProvider. EasterOffsetProvider ships built in — Good Friday is -2, Easter Monday 1, Ascension 39, Whit Monday 50 — and closes the day unless you pass ranges. Register providers on the owner or ad hoc on a query:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\OpeningHours\Dynamic\EasterOffsetProvider;

// On the owner:
public function openingHoursDynamicExceptions(): array
{
    return [
        new EasterOffsetProvider(-2, 'Good Friday'),
        new EasterOffsetProvider(1, 'Easter Monday', ['10:00-12:00']),
    ];
}

// Or ad hoc:
$hours->withDynamicExceptions(new EasterOffsetProvider(50, 'Whit Monday'));
```

## Custom rules

Any rule you can express in code — the first Monday of every month, say — is a class implementing DynamicExceptionProvider. Return ExceptionData for the dates it covers and null elsewhere; the returned window is ignored and the exception applies to the date asked:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\OpeningHours\Contracts\DynamicExceptionProvider;
use RoundlyConsulting\OpeningHours\DataTransferObjects\ExceptionData;
use RoundlyConsulting\OpeningHours\ValueObjects\AbsoluteWindow;
use RoundlyConsulting\OpeningHours\ValueObjects\LocalDate;

final class FirstMondayInventory implements DynamicExceptionProvider
{
    public function exceptionFor(LocalDate $date): ?ExceptionData
    {
        return $date->day <= 7 && $date->weekday()->iso() === 1
            ? new ExceptionData(AbsoluteWindow::single($date), [], 'Inventory')
            : null;
    }
}
```

Providers are resolved per call and never cached. Easter is computed natively — no PHP extension required. There are no built-in country holiday calendars; add fixed-date holidays as yearly exceptions.

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