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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Bahrain

The list of Bahrain 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 2008 (Bahrain News Agency-Manama) Bahrain's Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman al Khalifa, issued a circular confirming that the public sector would be on holidays on the date of the upcoming Eid al Fitr (End of Ramadan) public holiday, as well as the 2 following days. • 13 Jan 2008 (Bahrain News Agency) Earlier today, the Prime Minister issued a circular that confirms the Ashura dates of Friday and Saturday, January 18-19, 2008, but as these fall of the 2 weekly weekend days of Bahrain, Government Ministries and establishments will get 2 extra days off work, on Sunday and Monday, January 20-21, 2008, as compensation. • 15 Dec 2007 (Gulf News) This December's combination of national and religious public holidays coupled with days in lieu for holidays that fall on the weekend is giving employees in the public sector a total of 10 consecutive days off, from Friday, December 14, to Sunday, December 23, 2007. Private sector employees, for their part will not be off on either Tuesday, December 18, or Sunday, December 23, 2007. • 09 Oct 2007 (Gulf News) Late Sunday, Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, announced that with Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, likely to be on Saturday, October 13, the public sector will have Friday, a weekly day off, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, as Eid days, and Tuesday in compensation for Saturday. People working for private establishments will resume work on Tuesday. • 28 Mar 2007 (Bahrain News Agency) Saturday March 31, 2007, will be a public holiday, to mark the Prophet's Birthday. But, as Saturday is already a weekend non-working day in Bahrain, a circular issued by the Prime Minister announced that the following non-working day, Sunday April 1st, would also be a public holiday. • 17 Feb 2007 (Gulf News) Bahrain's Women Union has called for International Women's Day on March 8 to be made a public holiday in the kingdom. But the call is likely to cause controversy in Bahrain where the business community has often complained about the high number of public holidays. • 18 Jan 2007 January 21, 2007, has been declared a public holiday in Bahrain, on the occasion of the Hijra New Year, as Hijra New Year in Bahrain is predicted to occur on Saturday January 20, which means the the public holiday is then observed on the next Sunday. • 25 Dec 2006 Nine-day holiday for Bahrainis: Public sector employees and students will remain away from the office and schools for nine days. The nine-day holiday will start on Friday December 29, the day before Eid Al Adha, and will end on January 6, 2007, with all ministries and government establishments and organisations remaining closed. Government employees are usually given three days off for Eid, but a decision by the previous parliament added Arafat Day, the day when pilgrims stand on Mount Arafat in the suburbs of Makkah. With the Bahraini law stipulating compensation for the off days that fall on Friday or Saturday, the public sector will also have Tuesday and Wednesday off on account of Arafat Day (Friday) and the first Eid day (Saturday). The occurrence of New Year's Day on Monday, the third day of Eid, will result in a replacement on Thursday. The perspective of the long holidays, although not officially announced yet, was calculated upon the surprise, recent, announcement by Saudi Arabia that Eid would start on December 30, instead of December 31. • 12 Dec 2006 There are unconfirmed reports, quoting the Bankers Society of Bahrain, that the 2 national day holidays of December 16 and 17, 2006, will be followed by an additional day of public holiday on Monday, December 18, 2006. It is not clear yet, if this additional holiday will be limited to banking and financial establishments. • 23 Oct 2006 All financial institutions will be closed from October 23 to October 25, 2006, inclusive. • 02 Aug 2006 Beginning in September 2006, weekends in Bahrain will run from Friday to Saturday instead of Thursday to Friday. Government departments, hospitals, schools, universities and foreign diplomatic missions, which close on Thursday and Friday, will be affected by the change. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Bahrain 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 Bahrain are regulated by the Legislative Decree No.14 of 1993 which amended the earlier Labour Law For The Private Sector Promulgated By Legislative Decree No.23 Of 1976. • Weekend days are now Fridays and Saturdays . • Bahraini law stipulates compensation for public holidays that fall on Friday or Saturday, for the public sector. But private sector employees do not have any public holidays compensation benefits). • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Central Bank of Bahrain (Bahrain 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 Bahrain, 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.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Bahrain 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 Bahrain 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.

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