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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Afghanistan

The list of Afghanistan 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

 © 1989-2008 Alter Ego Services

23 Jul 2007 (The Daily Times) President, Hamid Karzai, announced three days of national mourning following the death of former King, Mohammad Zahir Shah. • 14 Feb 2006 (Pajhwok Afghan News-Kabul) The government, on the recommendation of the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday declared the 26th day of Dalwo (around February 15) as a new annual public holiday to commemorate the victory of mujahidin against the invading Soviet troops eighteen years ago. • 06 Dec 2004 (Associated Press of Pakistan-Islamabad) Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 7, 2004, has been declared a public holiday on the occasion of the oath taking ceremony of the first elected president of Afghanistan. • 07 Jan 2004 (Afghan National Assembly) The recently ratified new constitution of Afghanistan specifies, in its Article 18, two new public holidays, Independence Day and Victory Day. • 24 Oct 2003 (Xinhuanet-Kabul) The government of Afghanistan has declared Monday, October 27, 2003, as the first day of the month of Ramadan, and a nationwide public holiday. • 20 Mar 2002 (Afghan News Network) Afghans are celebrating the Afghan new year for the first time since 1996, when the now ousted Taleban seized control of the country and banned the holiday of Narooz, calling it un-Islamic. • 07 Feb 2002 (Afghan News Network-Kabul) The leader of the Afghan interim government, Hamid Karzai, has issued a decree replacing the Islamic lunar calendar with the traditional Afghan solar calendar. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Afghanistan 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 Afghanistan are regulated by the January 4, 2004, Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Chapter 1, Article Eighteen) which specifies that the state calendar is the Hejrah-e shamsi solar calendar (similar to the Persian calendar used in Iran), and specifies the dates of the Victory Day and Independence Day public holidays with respect to the Hejrah-e shamsi calendar (Asad 28 and Sawr 8), leaving the remainder to specific laws to be passed by the National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Wolesi Jirga). • Liberation Day: In 2005, the 26th day of the Afghan month of Dalwo was declared a new public holiday, effective starting in 2007, to commemorate the anniversary of the exit of the last soldier of the Soviet Union army, eighteen years before . • Victory Day: This public holiday commemorates the date in 1992, when Mujahideen of different Jihadi parties gained a major victory over the Russian-backed Najibullah regime. It is also the occasion for Afghans to remember Afghanistan's first president and his family members who were assasinated in a coup d’tat by Soviet backed regime on April 27th 1978. • Weekends: Fridays are the weekly day of rest (Juma). • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Bank of Afghanistan (Afghanistan 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).

Religion of Specific Business Contacts : Some of the business contacts that you may be trying to meet in Afghanistan, may belong to a religious group that is not common in Afghanistan, and therefore which is not included in the above list of public holidays or bank holidays. To be safe, you should also verify that no major religious holidays coincides with any planned business trip to Afghanistan. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Afghanistan that are based on certain religious calendars may be subject to local variations due to differing interpretations between different religious authorities, or to seemingly arbitrary changes in the date a holiday is celebrated because it conflicts with another holiday that is based on another calendar, or because the day of the holiday is deemed inauspicious (bad luck). To find out more about these uncertainties, see the footnote below, if any, for each specific religion.

Muslim Holidays : Muslim bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Afghanistan were evaluated using the Umm al-Qura Calendar of Saudi Arabia which is used in Saudi Arabia and in most of the Persian Gulf States. Holidays may occur a day later in countries outside the Gulf region. The sunrises, sunsets, moon phases, moonrises and moonsets used in these calculations are based on the location of Mecca (latitude 21.42°N, longitude, 39.82°E, GMT+3 hours, no summer time rules). For more details on Muslim holidays, see Muslim Calendar Holidays. For Salat (prayer times) calculations, see our Freeware page.

Solar Holidays : The calculation of moon phases, moonrises, moonsets, equinoxes, solstices, sunrises, and sunsets used to predict solar bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Afghanistan are based on the geographical location of Kabul (latitude 34,5°N, longitude 69,2°E, GMT+4,5 hours, no summer time rules). Note that many countries in South-East Asia are progressively changing the recurrence rule of some of their lunar/solar holidays to rules based on fixed dates of the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Therefore, while the dates predicted above for 2009 and beyond are currently technically correct, the rules of these holidays may change in the next few years. For more details on lunar and solar holidays, see the Lunisolar Footnotes.

Persian holidays were calculated using the Persian calendar, based on the geographical location and timezone offset of Tehran, but neglecting summer time changes.

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 Afghanistan, 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 Afghanistan, before planning any trip to Afghanistan. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.