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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for The Bahamas

The list of The Bahamas 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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28 Sep 2007 (The Bahama Journal) Earlier this week, Minister of State for Culture, Charles Maynard, announced that although the bills were passed in parliament earlier this year, legislation to establish a system of local honours and change the name of the Discovery Day holiday to National Heroes Day won’t come into effect by October 12 (the date of this year's Discovery Day as well as the date of the proposed National Heroes' Day). • 11 Jan 2007 (Freeport News) With the the 40th anniversary of majority rule in the Bahamas, yesterday, there have been renewed calls on the government to make January 10 one of the Bahamas public holidays (currently it is only briefly "observed" during a government ceremony). • 09 Sep 2002 (Government of the Bahamas) The Cabinet Office said the Government had decided that, in the future, whenever a holiday fell on a Saturday, it would be observed on the following Monday. • 09 Sep 2002 (Government of the Bahamas) The Cabinet Office has announced that the Government has decided that the Discovery Day Holiday would be observed on Monday, October 14, 2002. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the The Bahamas 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 the Bahamas are regulated by Chapter 36 of Bahamian Statute Law, known in short form as the Public Holidays Act of 1938 (revised 12 times since 1938), most lately and comprehensively by the Public Holidays (Amendment) Act 2000. • Weekend Public Holidays: The Government of the Bahamas decided, in September 2002, that when any fixed-date public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday then the following Monday should be observed and kept as one of the public holidays. • Discovery Day: After his 2002 election, Prime Minister Christie appointed the National Cultural Development Commission to determine when Bahamian history month should be observed, and consequently when and how to observe National Heroes' Day. The commission yielded 2 reports. The majority report recommended that Bahamian history month be observed in October, and that Discovery Day (October 12) be observed as National Heroes Day. The minority report, however, recommended Bahamian history month be observed in January, and that January 10, the anniversary of majority rule, be named National Heroes Day . • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Central Bank of The Bahamas (The Bahamas 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 The Bahamas, 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.

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