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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Fiji

The list of Fiji 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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21 May 2008 (Government of Fiji) The Fiji Governing Cabinet has approved the list of the dates of public holidays for the year 2009. The list pins-down, for 2009, the always uncertain local dates for the Prophet's Birthday, Diwali, and Youth Day, and the announced list also contains some exceptions to the days in lieu rules. • 13 Oct 2007 (The Fiji Times) Late in the week, the government announced that although it had already set up a committee to draw up plans for celebrations, there would be no public holiday upon the Fiji Rugby team's return home (as had been rumoured). • 30 Sep 2007 (Sport24.com) Following Fiji's win against Wales, thereby acceding to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, it is quite conceivable that a one-off public holiday might be declared in Fiji in October 2007, as it did in 2005. This year, though, as was the case in 2006, another public holiday is coming up, Fiji Day, on October 8, so the declaration of a one-off public holiday remains uncertain. • 16 May 2007 (The Fiji Times) Former Vice-President, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, has called for the creation of new a public holiday to commemorate the arrival of the Girmitiyas from India 128 years ago. • 21 Feb 2007 (BBC News) Fiji's military ruler, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, says he plans to call parliamentary elections in 2010. • 19 Oct 2006 (Fiji Times-Suva) Most shops are expected to be closed on Saturday October 21, 2006 because the day was declared a public holiday for Diwali. • 21 Mar 2005 (Fiji Village-Suva) Fiji's chief executive officer at the Prime Minister's Office, Joji Kotobalavu, has announced that Thursday, March 24, 2005, had been declared a public holiday to celebrate the return of the prestigious Melrose Cup won by Fiji in Hong Kong. • 21 Apr 2004 (Pacific Magazine) The Home Affairs Minister Joketani Cokanasiga has confirmed that Friday, April 30 will be a one-off public holiday and will be gazetted as such by the Labour Minister. • 22 Jan 2004 (Fijilive-Suva) Fiji's supervisor of elections, Semesa Karavaki, supported by Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, has proposed that a one-off national public holiday be declared during the upcoming 2006 general election, to give ample time to voters to cast their votes. • 19 Jun 2003 (Fijilive-Suva) Fiji's minister for information and media relations, Simione Kaitani, announced yesterday that Cabinet has approved the dates for the 2004 public holidays in Fiji. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Fiji 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 Fiji are regulated by the Public Holidays Act (Ordinances Nos. 1 of 1931, 5 of 1937) as amended by the Employment Relations Promulgation No. 36 of 2007, sections 64-66, which differentiates between 1) Declared public holidays, 2) Days to be celebrated as public holidays, and 3) Special public holidays. • Weekend Public Holidays: When public holidays fall on a Sunday, then the following Monday is a public holiday unless otherwise ordered by the Minister by notification in the Gazette (Public Holidays (Amendment) Act 2003). • Exceptions: Sections 65-6 and 66 of the law of record do mention that if the date set for a public holiday set out in Section 64 falls on another day other than a Monday, the Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, approve that such public holiday be celebrated on another day and also that the Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, appoint a special day or any part of a day to be kept as a public holiday in all workplaces. • When announcing their calendar of 2008 Public Holidays, 4 holidays in particular did not follow the rules that Fiji had been following in the past. These holidays are: • Youth Day: renamed Youth and Commonwealth Day and moved from a Friday in May to a Monday in March. • The Prophet's Birthday has been moved from March 24 to Monday, March 17 in 2008 so as not to coincide with Easter Monday.. • Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna Day was moved from a Monday to a Friday, May 30th in this case. • Fiji Day which had been the 2nd Monday in October was moved to Friday, October 10 in 2008. • The dates of the three Special Public Holidays: National Youth Day, Deepawali and Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday were fixed according to submissions from the respective organizations, namely, Ministry of Youth, Employment Opportunities and Sports, Shree Sanatan Dharam Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji and the Fiji Muslim League. • Prince Charles' Birthday (The anniversary of the birthday of the Heir to the Throne) was dropped from the list of Fiji public holidays in 2003, following spirited and, at times quite amusing, debates in the Senate . • Rugby World Sevens Series: This annual championship, when won by Fiji, has in the past been marked by the last minute declaration of one-off public holidays . • Death of Leading Politicians: The death of leading politicians, active or retired, often results in the last-minute declaration of a national public holiday of mourning . • Constitution Day used to be a public holiday, after the promulgation of the 1990 Constitution, and then, from 1997 until 2001, the public holiday used to commemorate the 1997 Constitution (July 27). Then, in 2001, the Laisenia Qarase's SDL government repealed the Constitution Day public holiday. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Reserve Bank of Fiji (Fiji 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 Fiji, 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 Fiji 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 Fiji 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 Fiji, 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 Fiji, 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 Fiji, before planning any trip to Fiji. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.