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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Panama

The list of Panama 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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14 Dec 2008 (La Estrella-Panama City) Panama's President, Martín Torrijos, declared 2 one-off, year-end bridge public holidays for the public sector, on Friday, December 26, 2008, and on Friday, January 2, 2009. • 30 Oct 2008 (Gaceta Oficial-Ministerio de la Presidencia) On October 29, Panama's President, Martín Torrijos Espino, signed Executive Decree 416, making Tuesday, November 4, 2008, a public holiday for all government agencies at the national and municipal level. • 20 Aug 2008 (El Sendero del Peje-Panamá) Panama's President, Martín Torrijos Espino, has declared Thursday, August 21, 2008, a one-off public holiday to celebrate the return on Panamanian soil of Irving Saladino, the first Olympic gold medallist of Panama's history. The decree is, by law limited to the public sector and to schools and educational establishments, but the private sector is expected to follow the holiday. • 19 Apr 2008 (La Prensa) Panama's Secretary of State for Communication announced that the upcoming 2008 Labour Day public holiday would be observed on its traditional set date of May 1st (recall that Panama public holidays, except those of January 9 and November 28, need Presidential apprval to be moved to the nearest Monday, if their set fixed date falls in the middle of the week). • 30 Dec 2007 (PA-Digital) The bill restoring the mechanism of días puente (bridge holidays) to some of Panama's public holidays was signed into law earlier this week by President, Martín Torrijos. The first public holiday to be affected will be the upcoming Martyr's Day public holiday, which will move from Wednesday, January 9, 2008, to Monday, January 7, 2008. • 29 Nov 2007 (Crítica en Linea) Bill 351 which aims to restore bridge holidays (días puente), has been passed after its third and final floor vote. Starting in 2008, the public holidays of January 9 and November 28 will move to the nearest Monday, if they occur on a mid-week date. The President may also make other public holidays into días puente. • 22 Nov 2007 (Crítica en Linea + La Prensa) The Chamber of Deputies has postponed to next Monday, the third and last reading of the bill to move some mid-week fixed-date public holidays to the nearest Monday. Therefore, the Independence Day public holiday will be celebrated on Wednesday, November 28, this year again. • 21 Nov 2007 (Critica en Linea + La Prensa) The bill aiming to move some mid-week fixed-date public holidays to a nearby weekend passed a second reading, and tourism organizations have begun to petition the President so that a Presidential decree be issued immediately, since the bill, as it now stands, would use Emiliani's rule which would mean that the upcoming November 28 public holiday would be moved to next Monday, November 26, and not December 3. • 17 Nov 2007 (El Panamá América) An emergency session of the legislative assembly has been called to vote the law re-establishing días puente (moving mid-week fixed-date public holidays to the following Monday) in time to move the effective date of the upcoming Independence Day public holiday, from Wednesday November 28, to Monday, December 3. • 03 Nov 2007 (La Estrella) The newspaper La Estrella, in a recent telephone conversation, confirmed to us that, despite reports to the contrary, Tuesday, November 6, 2007, would be a regular working day. • 14 Oct 2007 (Telemetro) Parliament's Working Comission approved a draft law that would move to the nearest Monday, public holidays that occur on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with some exceptions. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Panama 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: Public holidays in Panama are governed by article 46 of the Labour Code (Decreto del Gabinete 252 por el cual se aprueba el Código de Trabajo), as amended by Law 46 of November 14, 1962, law 4 of June 25, 1990, law 51 of October 30, 1999, law 55 of November 7, 2001, and law 70 of December 2007 (Ley núm. 70 que modifica el Código del Trabajo, Gaceta Oficial, 2008-01-02, núm. 25950). • Regional and Municipal public holidays: Each district and municipality has a local public holiday for either its patron saint day or the anniversary of its foundation. The list is published annually, usually in January, by an executive decree named "Por el cual se declaran feriados los días del Santo Patrono y de la Fundación de varias poblaciones de la República de Panamá, durante el año XXXX". • Compulsory Public Holidays: The Código del Trabajo classifies compulsory public holidays (descanso obligatorio) into 2 origins or categories; those of national mourning (por duelo nacional) and those of national holiday (por fiesta nacional). January 9 and Good Friday belong to the first category,all others belong to the second category. • Inauguration Day: The day of a Presidential inauguration is also listed in the compulsory national public holidays. The next presidential elections in Panama are expected to take place on May 2, 2009, with the inauguration having happenend on the subsequent September 1st, both in 1999 and 2004 . • Carnival: Although Carnaval is celebrated from the Saturday to the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, only the Tuesday is a public holiday. However, trying to conduct business on Carnival Monday is not recommended. • Banks are open from Monday to Saturday, inclusively, except if there is a public holiday. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: 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 Panama, 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.

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