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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Guyana

The list of Guyana 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

15 Dec 2008 (Starcom Network News-Bridgetown) Guyana's Local government minister, Kellawan Lall, has announced that the upcoming municipal elections, the first since 1994, had been postponed until the end of 2009. • 30 Dec 2006 (Stabroek News) January 1 has been declared a public holiday to observe Eid-ul-Adha, although within the local Muslim community, the festival day will be observed on different dates. • 23 Aug 2006 (Government Information Agency-GINA) The Presisent of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, has authorised the Ministry of Home Affairs to gazette Monday, August 28, 2006 as a one-off public holiday. • 29 Apr 2004 (GINA-Georgetown) The Guyana National Assembly approved the motion by the Special Select Committee on the Review of Public Holidays, adding two public holidays: May 26 (Independence Day) and May 5, (Arrival Day). • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Guyana 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 law of record for the official public holidays in Guyana is chapter 19:07 of the Laws of Guyana, also known as the Public Holidays Act of 1919, later to be amended by the Public Holidays Ordinance, Chapter 61 which was itself amended in 1967. Section 4-(1) of the Holidays With Pay Act 1995 (Cap. 99:02) further refines the concept of what is a public holiday in Guyana. • Upcoming Changes: There is currently heated debate in Guyana about public holidays changes. Although two have just been added, namely Independence Day and Arrival Day, other changes are also being discussed. There is talk about no longer moving public holidays that fall on Sunday to the following Monday, removing Boxing Day and/or Caricom day, switching The Prophet's Birthday for Eid al Fitr (End of Ramadan), or just adding the latter, as well as adding a public holiday to recognize the indigenous peoples. As soon as we are able to establish that official changes have been made, they will be integrated into the information that we provide to you. • For a background article on the origins of the Arrival Day holiday on May 5, Indian immigration to the Caribbean, during the 19th century, and how their descendents have evolved as a group since then, see http://tinyurl.com/vt9vc. • There is often confusion about the actual dates of Muslim public holidays in Guyana., as there are 2 organisms that each, independently declare dates for the beginning of Muslim months; the Central Moon Sighting Committee of Guyana (CMSCG) and the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG). They often declare contradictory dates, and to add to the confusion, the government also declares a date somewhat independently of these 2 organisms . • Deepavali: The official use of the name Deepavali, would indicate that this public holiday is calculated based on the southern Indian calendrical method (as opposed to the name Diwali which would indicate a norther Indian calculation method). However, an analysis of the dates of this public holiday in past years, including 2008, indicates that the calculation method is the northern Indian method. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Bank of Guyana (Guyana 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).

Religion of Specific Business Contacts : Some of the business contacts that you may be trying to meet in Guyana, may belong to a religious group that is not common in Guyana, and therefore which is not included in the above list of public holidays or bank holidays. To be safe, you should also verify that no major religious holidays coincides with any planned business trip to Guyana. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Guyana 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 Guyana 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 Guyana, 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 Guyana, 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 Guyana, before planning any trip to Guyana. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.