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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Qatar

The list of Qatar 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

17 Sep 2008 (The Peninsula-Doha) Qatar's minister of state for cabinet affairs, Sheikh Nasser bin Mohamed bin Abdulaziz al-Thani, announced that, for for ministries and government departments, the upcoming Eid al-Fitr public holidays would stretch from Sunday, September 28, to Monday, October 6, 2008, while other public institutions would start on the same date but finish on Sunday, October 5. For their part, Qatar's banks, financial institutions and the Doha Securities Market will be on holidays three days, whose dates are to be announced by the Qatar Central Bank (QCB). • 13 Dec 2007 (Gulf Times) Yesterday, the Qatar Central Bank announced a bank holiday for the period of December 18-23, inclusively. Traditionally, insurance companies follow the Qatar Central Bank directive on bank holidays, and the Doha Securities Market (DSM) also announced it would remain closed from December 18 to 23, and that it would reopen for trading on December 24 at 10am. • 03 Dec 2007 (Arabian Business) Late yesterday, it was announced that the upcoming Eid al Adha public holiday would last from Wednesday, December 19 to Tuesday, December 25, 2007, inclusively (in addition to Tuesday, December 18, Qatar's National Day, also a public holiday). • 22 Aug 2007 (Copp Clark) It has been confirmed that in compensation for the new public holiday on December 18 (our news report of April 5), beginning in 2007, September 3 will no longer be a public holiday in Qatar. • 22 Jun 2007 (Gulf Times) As forecast in our post of April 5, Law No. 61 of 2007 announcing the day of Sheikh Jassem bin Mohamed bin Thani’s assumption of power as a national day in the state, has been gazetted. • More News Updates For up-to-the-minute news about public holidays trends and changes, visit our public holidays news and updates pages, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

The weekend in Qatar is now Friday and Saturday. Friday is the Muslim day of prayer and all offices are closed. Some shops, supermarkets, and malls do however open in the afternoon. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Qatar Central Bank (Qatar 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 Qatar, 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.

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