MLK Day 2026: What’s Open And Closed In Lake Forest

LAKE FOREST, IL — Most state and federal offices in Illinois will be closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.

There will be no mail delivery. FedEx will have modified services on MLK Day, while its Freight, Office, Critical, and Logistics divisions will be open as usual. UPS will be closed for the day, but limited locations and its Express Critical service will be available.

Banks will be closed and both the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ will have the day off.

In Lake Forest, all schools are closed for the holiday.

Retail stores, restaurants and many other businesses are open as usual, although some, including Patch, observe MLK Day as a paid holiday.

King is the only non-president to have a national holiday named in his honor. He also is the only non-president with a memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. And Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the only federal holiday designated as a day of service.

The MLK monument and other iconic memorials on the National Mall are free to visit, but regular admission rates apply at museums or buildings within the mall area, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

In the past, MLK Jr. Day was one of the National Park Service’s free-admission days. In November, President Donald Trump removed MLK Day and Juneteenth from park service free-admission days, and added Flag Day, his birthday, on June 14.

The action did not change the status of MLK Day as a federal holiday. The spirit of the holiday as a day for service and recognition of King’s legacy continues through events and volunteerism.

Near Lake Forest, communities will honor Dr. King's legacy. Highland Park will hold its 17th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service from 10 a.m. on Jan. 19 at Park Fitness, 1207 Park Ave. West. A drive-through donation collection will precede the event from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

King’s widow, the late Coretta Scott King, once said the greatest birthday her husband could receive “is if people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds celebrated the holiday by performing individual acts of kindness through service to others.”

The theme of the 2026 Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance is “Mission Possible 2: Building Community, Uniting a Nation the Nonviolent Way.”

The King Center describes the theme as “a blueprint for action” for building “a world where injustice ends, violence is replaced by compassion, and love becomes the prevailing force.” Events that started Monday and continue through Jan. 19 focus on the legacy and unfinished work of King, a driving force behind watershed voting, housing and civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

In the mid-1950s, King led efforts to desegregate the South through non-violent protest. His speeches, including the “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington, are among the most iconic in U.S. history. It took 32 years for the federal government to finally approve a federal holiday celebrating King’s birthday.