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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Brazil

The list of Brazil bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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02 Dec 2008 (Primeira Edição-Brasila) Last night, Brazil's lower house of parliament's Comissão de Constituição e Justiça da Câmara dos Deputados approved bill nº 4437/ 2007 which would make November 20 a new nationwide public holiday in Brazil, called "Dia Nacional de Zumbi e da Consciência Negra" and sent it to the Senate for approval. • 24 Nov 2008 (Cidade Verde) Last Thursday, Brazil's President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (aka. Lula), announced that he was favourable to the making of November 20 as a nationwide public holiday in Brazil. • 21 Nov 2008 (Agência Brasil-Brasília) A new draft bill (Projeto de Lei No. 4.437/04) is now in front of the National Assembly. This bill, if passed into law, would make November 20 (the anniversary of the death of Zumbi dos Palmares, also known as Dia Nacional da Consciência Negra) a new annual public holiday in Brazil. • 16 Nov 2008 (O Globo-São Paulo) According to the presidential agency SEPPIR (Secretaria Especial de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial) the November 20, Dia Nacional da Consciência Negra, holiday will be observed as a public holiday in over 700 cities throughout Brazil. • 15 Nov 2008 (Portal Terra-São Paulo) Brazil's federation of banks (Federação Brasileira de Bancos, aka. Febraban) has announced that banks in 303 of the main cities of Brazil would observe the upcoming Dia Nacional da Consciência Negra holiday on Thursday, November 20, 2008. • 12 Nov 2008 (Correio do Estado) The Federal Goverment of Brazil, through its Ministério do Planejamento, announced the official list of 2009 public holidays in Brazil. • 05 Sep 2008 (Agência Senado do Brasil-Brasilia) A little more than a year after last year's draft bill (our post of July 24, 2007), the president of Brazil's Parliamentary commission on racial equality, Carlos Santana (PT-RJ), hasmade a new proposal for making November 20 (the Day of Black Consciousness) a full national public holiday. • 12 Jul 2008 (Agência Câmara-Brasilia) The Commission for the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (Comissão de Constituição e Justiça e de Cidadania, CCJ) has passed in its final reading the Projeto de Lei 1385/03, of assemblyman Gastão Vieira (PMDB-MA), making June 10th, an annual national holiday, celebrating the contributions made to the development of Brazil by Portuguese immigration. This date is not the same as the one in last November's proposal which set forth April 22 to commemorate the arrival of Europeans. • 10 Jul 2008 (Seu Dinheiro) On May 26 we related that a draft bill (Projeto de Lei 2846/08) was going through Brazil's Parliament, which would have as effect, to make the Carnival Tuesday public holiday always fall on the first Tuesday of March. Recently, another bill (Projeto de Lei 3418/08), was introduced by representative Daniel Almeida (PCdoB-BA), which would also make Carnival Tuesday a full-fledged public holiday in Brazil, and would fix its occurrence to the last Tuesday in February. • 26 May 2008 (Agência Câmara-Brasilia) A draft bill (Lei 2846/08) by deputy Wellington Fagundes (PR-MT) has gone into commission. It purports to officially add Carnival Tuesday to the list of national public holidays in Brazil (it is currently only an unofficial holiday taken by the civil service and many, but not all, companies) as well as Good Friday and Corpus Christi. The draft law would have the official Carnival public holiday set to always occur on the first Tuesday of March, rather than follow the Christian calendar. • 20 Feb 2008 (A Voz Da Cidade-Rio de Janeiro) The State of Rio de Janeiro passed a law making the previously optional municipal holiday of São Jorge (Saint George's Day, April 23) into a full public holiday throughout the State, beginning in 2008. • 28 Dec 2007 (O Dia + Agência de Notícias do Acre) Brazil's Ministry of Planning has released the official list of 2008 public holidays (feriados nacionais e pontos facultativos). • 27 Nov 2007 (Bom Dia Bauru) The bill that would move some public holidays that fall on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, to the preceding Monday, after having received the approval of the Education and Constitution and Justice commissions, is now awaiting a date for a vote on the floor of the Brazilian Parliament. • 04 Nov 2007 (Agência Câmara) The Human Rights Commission of the National Assembly approved a resolution specifying 3 separate annual dates to commemorate each of the 3 main ethnicities of Brazil: April 19, for Brazil's native people, April 22, to commemorate the arrival of Europeans, and November 20, for Brazilians of African origin. Individual states and localities are encouraged to declare these as public holidays. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Brazil public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Governing Law: Official public holidays in Brazil are of 3 types, national (nacionais), state (estaduais) and municipal (municipais). National public holidays are regulated by Lei nº 662, de 6 de abril de 1949 which was amended by federal law 10.607 of December 19, 2002. Religious holidays are regulated by the Lei nº 9.093, de 12 de setembro de 1995. • Carnival Tuesday (terça-feira de Carnaval) is not a national public holiday in Brazil (only in some states and municipalities). However, tradition is that most businesses are off for both the Monday and Tuesday of Carnival. • Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are often only half days. • All Saints Day (Nov. 1) is not one of the official public holidays but may be taken, especially in villages. • There are also many regional public holidays (a list of the Brazilian states and their abbreviations can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2vnapw): • Sao Sebastiao (Rio de Janeiro) Jan. 20. • Sao Paulo Anniversary (Sao Paulo) Jan. 25. • Sao Antônio (Sorocaba, SP) Jun. 13 • Sao Joao Day (Recife) Jun. 24. • Sao Paulo State Day (Sao Paulo) Jul. 9. • Nossa Senhora do Carmo Day (Recife) Jul. 16. • Assumption Day (Belo Horizonte Day) Aug. 15. • Merchants Day (Recife) Oct. 2. • Dia da Bandeira Nov. 19. • Día Nacional de la Conciencia Negra (see below) Nov. 20 • Evangelicals Day (Brasilia) Nov. 30. • Immaculate Conception Day (BH & Recife) Dec. 8. • Zumbi's Birthday, also known as Día Nacional de la Conciencia Negra (National Day of Black Self-Awareness), on November 20: Bill 302/2003 (Dispõe sobre a instituição de feriado nacional na data da morte de Zumbi dos Palmares), by Senator Paulo Paim, to make the date a national public holiday has been stalled in the Senate since 2003. However, despite its lack of official national status, it was officially celebrated in 5267 of the country's 5561 cities and municipalities in 2007 (as compared to 5225, in 2006), including Río de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, where it has been an official municipal public holiday since 2003 . • Resolução 2516, from the year 2000, made Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) a working day, but the same resolution excused financial institutions from fulfilling minimal operating hours on that date. • December 31 was made a holiday for the banking sector by resolution 2.596/99. • On election years, law 9.504/97 specifies that the first round of voting ocurs on the first Sunday of October, and the second round, when needed, occurs on the last Sunday of October. • Dia do Servidor Público (Civil Servants' Day): although the governing law (art. 236 of law nº 8.112 of December 11, 1990) specifies a fixed date for this holiday, in the past it has often been arbitrarily moved to another date when it occurred on a weekend (2007) or in the middle of the week (2008 and 2009). • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Central Bank of Brazil (Brazil central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Brazil, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world. Aft=Afternoon, Arm=Armenian, Bah=Bahai, Bnk=Banks and most financial institutions, Bud=Buddhist, Cat=Catholic, Chr=Christian, Cop=Coptic, Eve=Evening, Gov=Government services and civil servants, Hin=Hindu, Jew=Jewish, Lin=Linguistic or ethnic groups, Mor=Morning, Mun=Municipal, Mus=Muslim, Orth=Orthodox, Othr=Miscellaneous partial observances (usually described in the Additional Information section of this page), Prt=Protestant, Reg=Regional, Rel=Other Religion, Sch=Schools and universities, Sik=Sikh.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Brazil, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Brazil, before planning any trip to Brazil. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.