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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Morocco

The list of Morocco 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

01 Jun 2008 (NAB and El Jadida) Through decree n°2-08-224, the Moroccan authorities have introduced daylight saving time (DST) for the first time. As from June 1, 2008 the local time will be GMT+1. The end date is planned to be September 27, 2008, however this date is subject to a confirmation. • 30 Oct 2007 (Aujourd'hui le Maroc) The Minister in charge of the modernization of the public sector, has announced that the government was ready to declare Fridays as an official day off with pay. Currently, many businesses close on both Fridays and Saturdays, but they are by no means in the majority. • 28 Mar 2007 (Private Communication) The Prophet's Birthday public holiday has been officially moved to Sunday April 1st, 2007, lasting 2 days. • 23 Feb 2007 (Reuters South Africa) Morocco will hold a parliamentary election on Friday September 7. As reported in our February 1st news item, the DRI has recommended that election day be made a public holiday. In this case, though, it will not be an issue, as the weekend is defined as Friday and Saturday in Morocco. • 01 Feb 2007 (Magharebia) A report released to the public last week by Transparency Maroc and Democracy Reporting International (DRI), concerning the organisational framework for elections in Morocco, recommended that election day be declared a public holiday. This would avoid problems of overcrowding when polling stations close. The next elections in Morocco are the Parliamentary Elections, set to occur in September 2007. • 23 Oct 2006 All financial institutions will be closed from October 24 to October 25, 2006, inclusive. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Morocco 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 Morocco are regulated by Articles 217-230 of Chapter III of the New Labor Code of Morocco (Dahir n° 1-03-194 du 14 rejeb (11 septembre 2003) portant promulgation de la loi n° 65-99 relative au Code du Travail) and the decree corresponding to public holidays (Décret n° 2-04-426 du 29 décembre 2004 fixant la liste des jours de fêtes payés dans les entreprises industrielles et commerciales, les professions libérales et les exploitations agricoles et forestières) which abrogated the previous Décret n° 2-62-101 du 23 ramadan 1381 of February 28, 1962. • Weekends are Saturdays and Sundays, though the government has recently considered adding Fridays (see our news story of October 30, 2007). • Weekend Public Holidays: Public holidays that occur on a weekend remain on that date (ie. they are not moved to another date). • Religious Public Holidays: According to the aforementioned laws, each one of the public holidays in Morocco only lasts 1 day. However, in practice, The Prophet's Birthday and the 2 Eids are usually either given or taken as 2 days by employees of the civil service, educational institutions, and foreign embassies. • Eid al Adha is also called Tfaska Tamoqqart in the Berber language of native North African Berbers. • Cancelled Holidays: Ever since King Mohammed the VI's accession to the throne, there has been talk of reducing the number of public holidays. The 3 following dates are recurringly mentioned as the holidays that will be cancelled: August 14, August 20, and November 6. However, nothing has yet been made official. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Bank of Morocco (Morocco 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 Morocco, may belong to a religious group that is not common in Morocco, 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 Morocco. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

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