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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Swaziland

The list of Swaziland 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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13 Dec 2008 (Swazi Observer-Mbabane) Swaziland's Principal Secretary of Home Affairs, Meshack Shongwe, announced last night that the upcoming Incwala (aka. First Fruits) public holiday would be observed on Monday, December 15, 2008. • 15 Aug 2008 (The Times of Swaziland-Mbabane) Prince Gabheni, in an interview yesterday, announced that the 2008 Umhlanga (Reed Dance) ceremony would occur on August 31 and September 1, 2008, with the second day, being the official Umhlanga public holiday. • 30 Jul 2008 (Times of Swaziland-Lobamba) At a press conference, earlier today, Swaziland's Elections and Boundaries Commission Chairman, Chief Gija, announced that Friday, September 19, 2008, will be a public holiday on the occasion of the the Secondary General Elections. • 26 Dec 2007 (The Times) Swaziland's Minister of Home Affairs, Prince Gabheni, has officially announced that the public holiday corresponding to the Incwala, would be on Friday, December 28, 2007. • 22 Dec 2007 (The Swazi Observer) Swaziland's Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Meshack Shongwe, said that the date of the upcoming Incwala public holiday had not been made, adding that such a decision was made by Labadzala who understand the customary signs, which prelude the Incwala Dance. • 28 Aug 2007 (IOL) It would appear that this year's Umhlanga, or Reed Dance, Ceremony will take place on Saturday and Sunday, September 1 and 2, meaning that the Umhlanga public holiday will likely occur on Monday, September 3, 2007, as we have been forecasting for many months, now. • 19 Aug 2007 (Zululand EcoAdventures) A travel website has posted the date of September 8 for the 2007 Umhlanga, or Reed Dance. However, no official announcement has yet been made and the semi-official Swazi Observer newspaper, in a recent article, hinted that it might be in August. • 20 Jul 2007 (The Swazi Observer) Monday, July 23, 2007, has been declared as a day in lieu public holiday for the July 22 public holiday for the Birthday of the King's Late Father. • 04 Jul 2007 (IOL) The new Children's Act, which came into effect this week, outlaws virginity testing of girls younger than the age of 16, casting doubts about the future of the Umhlanga (Reed Dance) public holiday. • 04 Jan 2007 (The Swazi Observer) Minister of Home Affairs Prince Gabheni has declared Saturday, January 6, 2007, a public holiday on the occasion of the Incwala Ceremony. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Swaziland public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Weekend Public Holidays: There are isolated reports that when a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the gazette states that the following day shall be deemed a public holiday. However, we have not been able to obtain independent, official, confirmation of this. In any case, there seems to be a consensus that public holidays that fall on a Saturday do not get moved. • The Umhlanga (Reed Dance) is one of the 2 important ceremonies in Swazi culture. In the Umhlanga the main role players are the girls and the women. There are two Reed Dance ceremonies in the year - one is mainly for the girls (Tingabisa) and the other is mainly for the women (Lutsango). The main Reed Dance (the one for the girls) takes place in late August or early September during school holidays. The second, and last, day of the ceremony is declared the main day and a public holiday. However, its date is only announced shortly before it takes place. • The other important ceremony of Swazi culture is the Incwala. It is interesting to note that the name Incwala, which corresponds to first fruits, was used by Maulana Ron Karenga, in a slightly different spelling (and adding a second "a" for numerological reasons), when he initiated the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa, in 1966 . • Photography and Video Recordings: The Cinematograph Act, 1920 prohibits films to be made of certain Swazi cultural occasions and celebrations namely the Incwala Day, the King’s Birthday, the Umhlanga (Reed Dance) and the Somhlolo (Independence Day) without the Minister’s written consent. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: The Central Bank of Swaziland (Swaziland 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 Swaziland, 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 Swaziland 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.

Lunisolar Holidays : The calculation of moon phases, moonrises, moonsets, sunrises, and sunsets used to predict lunar bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Swaziland are based on the geographical location of Mbabane (latitude 26,3°S, longitude 31,1°E, GMT+2,0 hours, using the local 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 2008 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 Swaziland, 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 Swaziland, before planning any trip to Swaziland. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.