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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Bangladesh

The list of Bangladesh 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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19 Dec 2008 (UNB News Agency-Dhaka) We have received reports that the date of Bangladesh' upcoming ninth parliamentary elections, December 29, 2008, has been confirmed as a public holiday "to enable all to cast their vote amid a holiday mood". • 14 Dec 2008 (The Daily Star-Dhaka) Former prime minister and BNP Chairperson, Khaleda Zia, said that if the BNP wins the upcoming December 29 election, it would restore the May 30 and November 7 public holidays, to commemorate "the anniversary of the death of founding president Ziaur Rahman" and "'National Revolution and Solidarity Day", respectively. • 07 Dec 2008 (The New Nation-Dhaka) Following information received by leading Muslim scholars, Bangladesh's President, Iajuddin Ahmed, announced that the Eid-ul-Azha (Feast of Sacrifice) festival would occur on Tuesday, December 9, 2008, the middle day of the previously announced 3-day public holiday. • 01 Dec 2008 (The Daily Star-Dhaka) The Dhaka Stock Exchange will be closed from December 7 to December 11, 2008, and there will be no trading, clearing and settlement activities on these dates. However, other financial institutions will only be closed on December 8 to 10, 2008. • 21 Nov 2008 (The Daily Star-Dhaka) The Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) announced that it would push back the national election by 10 days provided the BNP-led four-party alliance commits to participate in it. • 20 Nov 2008 (New Age-Dhaka) The BNP-led alliance has informed the interim government and the Election Commission that it was dropping three out of its seven-point demands as pre-requisites to its participation in the upcoming elections. One of the dropped points was the insistence that the May 30 and November 7 public holidays be restored. • 26 Oct 2008 (The Daily Star-Dhaka) Earlier today, in a move reminiscent of what happened last year, the High Court of Bangladesh issued a rule asking the government to explain, within four weeks, its cancellation of November 7 as a public holiday. • 02 Oct 2008 (South Asia News) The head of Bangladesh's military-backed government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, announced Thursday, December 18, 2008, as the date of the upcoming elections. • 16 Sep 2008 (The Financial Express-Dhaka) At a meeting attended by Joint Secretary of Religious Affairs Ministry, AHM Afzal Hossain, and Director General of the Islamic Foundation, Md Fazlur Rahman, it was announced that Monday and Tuesday, September 29-30, 2008, will be one-off bridge public holidays between the September 28 Shab-e-Qadar (Night of Destiny) public holiday, and the beginning of the Eid-ul-Fiter holiday. • 10 Aug 2008 (bdnews24 + Reuters India) Earlier today, Syed Fahim Munaim, chief spokesman for the head of the interim government of Bangladesh, announced that the cabinet had decided to restore the date of August 15th as an annual government holiday and national day of mourning. • 03 Aug 2008 (The Financial Express-Dhaka) Following the Awami League's (AL) recent victory in getting the Bangladesh High Court to force the government to restore the August 15 public holiday commemorating the death of Bangladesh's founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. • 28 Jul 2008 (The Financial Express-Dhaka) The government of Bangladesh has declared a regional public holiday for officials and employees of all government, semi-government, autonomous, semi-autonomous and private offices and organisations in the 4 cities and 9 pourashavas (municipalities) that will be going to the polls on that day. • 27 Jul 2008 (The Daily Star + Bangladesh News 24 + Reuters India) As reported in our posts of August 6, and August 13, 2007, The High Court of Bangladesh was asked, last summer, to rule on the constitutionality of the cancelling of the August 15 annual public holiday. • 14 May 2008 (Bangladesh Ministry Of Religious Affairs) The Bangladesh Ministry Of Religious Affairs (MORA) has decided to move the upcoming Buddha Purnima public holiday, originally scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th, to Monday, May 19, 2008, instead. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Bangladesh 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 Bangladesh are regulated by the East Bengal Shops and Establishments Act of 1951, and the Factories Act of 1965. The actual dates are gazetted by the government every year with additional decrees added throughout the year. • Currently, in Bangladesh, the weekend is Friday and Saturday, although there have been repeated requests by the business community to align the Bangladesh weekend with the rest of the world . • The Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist communities are each entitled to additional optional public holidays depending on their religion . • The Muslim Community enjoys 5 days of optional public holidays: 4th day of Eid-ul-Azha Akheri Chahar Somba Fateha-i-Yajdaham Shab-e-Meraj 4th day of Holy Eid-ul-Fitr • The Hindu Community enjoys 7 days of optional public holidays: Sri Panchomi (Swarashwati Puja) Shibratri Doljattra Mohalaya Durgapuja (Saptami) Laksmi puja Sri Shayama Puja • The Christian Community enjoys 8 days of optional public holidays: New Year's Day Ash Wednesday Maundy Thursday Holy Saturday Easter Easter Monday Christmas Eve Boxing Day • The Buddhist Community enjoys 5 days of optional public holidays: Maghi Purnima Chaitra Sangkranti Ashari Purnima Modhu Purnima (Bhadra Purnima) Prabarana Purnima (Ashini Purnima) • National Revolution and Solidarity Day: The day was observed as National Revolution and Solidarity Day at state-level from 1976 to 1995. Coming to power in 1995, the then Awami League government stopped the practice during its tenure. After coming back to power in 2001, the BNP-led four-party coalition government resumed the practice. • August 15 is a public holiday to mark the death of the country's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This annual public holiday was canceled in 2002 by the government of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, after she won a 2001 election by defeating Mujib's daughter Sheikh Hasina, another former prime minister, who had introduced August 15 as public holiday to mourn her father after she won power in a 1996 election. The August 15 public holiday was restored again by a decision of the High Court, in July 2008. • Shaheed Day, on February 21, is also known as the Bangla Language Martyrs' Day, and was declared in 2000, by the UNESCO, as the International Mother Language Day . • Jumatul Wida is technically only observed by Muslims, however, with 83 percent of the population being Muslim, this can be treated as a national public holiday for all intents and purposes. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Bangladesh Bank (Bangladesh 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 Bangladesh, 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 Bangladesh 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 Bangladesh 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.

Hindu Holidays : For Bangladesh, when calculating the date of bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays based on the Hindu Lunar calendar, if the date is expunged (ie. does not occur), then we use the following existing date of the Hindu Lunar calendar. Local practice concerning expunged days may vary regionally. For more details on the evaluation of Hindu holidays, see Hindu Calendar holidays.

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