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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Sri Lanka

The list of Sri Lanka 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

22 Dec 2008 (Colombo Stock Exchange-Colombo) The Colombo Stock Exchange has announced that Friday, December 26, 2008, had been declared as a special one-off stock exchange holiday in Sri Lanka. • 21 Sep 2008 (Daily Mirror) Sri Lanka's Central Provincial Council announced that Thursday, September 25, 2008, had been declared a one-off public holiday in Sri Lanka's Central Province in honour of the Late President D.B. Wijetunge who passed away Sunday morning. • 16 Jul 2008 (Colombo Page) Ahead of the the forthcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, the Sri Lankan government has declared a 3-day public holiday, from Friday, August 1, to Sunday August 3, 2008. In addition, all train services to Colombo (Sri Lanka's capital) will be halted and the Central Fort Railway Station will be closed during the period of July 30 to August 3, 2008, and schools are expected to close for their August holidays from July 26 onwards. • 10 May 2008 (The Daily Mirror-Colombo) The presidency of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) is calling for a restoration of the May 22, Republic Day public holiday, which commemorates the adoption of a new constitution in 1972, and which was celebrated as an official public holiday between 1972 and 1977. • 08 Apr 2008 (Daily News-Colombo) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has instructed Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister Karu Jayasuriya to declare Monday, April 14, 2008, as a day in lieu public holiday as Sinhala and Tamil New Year falls on a Sunday in 2008. • 24 Mar 2007 (Sri Lanka Daily Mirror) The government of Sri Lanka is expected to declare April 30 a public holiday to enable the working class to celebrate May Day as both the May 1 public holiday and the Vesak Full Moon Poya Day holiday fall on the same date this year. Most political parties and trade unions have also decided to hold their May Day celebrations on April 30. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Sri Lanka 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: The declaration of official bank holidays and public holidays in Sri Lanka is regulated by section 4 of the Holidays Act. No. 29 of 1971, and the list and dates of these bank holidays and public holidays is announced annually by the Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs. • The full moon Poya Day public holiday of each month is a public holiday with pay for monthly paid employees. If an employee is required to work on such public holidays, then he shall be paid an extra half day’s wage in addition to the monthly wage. When a poya day falls on a weekly holiday or public holiday, no additional holiday need be given to employees in lieu of the poya day . • However, banks seem to move fixed-date public holidays that fall on a Sunday to the following Monday. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Central Bank of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka, 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.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka, 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.

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 Sri Lanka are based on the geographical location of Colombo (latitude 6,9°N, longitude 79,8°E, GMT+5,5 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.

Lunisolar Holidays : The calculation of moon phases, moonrises, moonsets, sunrises, and sunsets used to predict lunar bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Sri Lanka are based on the geographical location of Colombo (latitude 6,9°N, longitude 79,8°E, GMT+6,0 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.

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