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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Bangladesh

The list of Bangladesh bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2009, 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 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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20 Sep 2009 (bdnews24-Dhaka) Earlier tonight, at a meeting of the National Moon-Sighting Committee, chaired by Bangladesh's state minister for religious affairs, Mohammed Shahjahan Miah, it was announced that the Moon of Shawwal had been sighted, confirming that tomorrow will be the Eid-ul-Fitr in Bangladesh. • 16 Sep 2009 (BDE News 24-Dhaka) The government of Bangladesh has announced that the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr (End of Ramadan) public holidays would be extended by one day, if the Moon's crescent was not visible on Sunday night, September 20, 2009. • 15 Sep 2009 (Dhaka Stock Exchange-DSE) The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has announced that it will extend its upcoming End of Ramadan market holidays, and will remain closed Wednesday, September 23, and Thursday, September 24, 2009. • 10 Aug 2009 (The Daily Independent Bangladesh-Dhaka) The Press Information Department of Bangladesh has announced that Saturday, August 15, 2009, would be a public holiday on account of the 34th death anniversary of, "father of the nation", Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. • 29 Jun 2009 (United News of Bangladesh-Dhaka) Earlier today, the Central Bank of Bangladesh released a communiqué confirming the July 1st, 2009, bank holiday. • 12 May 2009 (BDE News 24-Dhaka) Bangladesh's education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, has announced that Madrasas and secondary schools will henceforth remain open on the public holidays of February 21, March 26, and December 16. • 05 Mar 2009 (The Daily Independent-Dhaka) Bangladesh's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, informed the Jatiya Sangsad that her government has no plan, currently, to change the weekly day of rest in Bangladesh from Friday to Sunday. But, she did add, that the reintroduction of public holidays on Sundays would be studied at a later date. • 19 Jan 2009 (Central Bank of Bangladesh-Dhaka) The government of Bangladesh has issued a decree changing the dates and duration of the Eid ul-Fiter (End of Ramadan) and the Eid -ul-Azha (Feast of Sacrifice) public holidays in 2009. • 12 Jan 2009 (bdnews24-Dhaka) The newly elected government of Bangladesh has released the list of official public holidays for 2009, 13 of which have been gazetted and 9 others have been declared by executive order. • 30 Dec 2008 (The Daily Independent-Dhaka) The government of Bangladesh has announced that the upcoming Ashura public holiday would be observed on Thursday, January 8, 2009. In addition, it declared January 1st, 2009 (Western New Year), a public holiday for Christian civil servants, and January 31st, 2009 (Saraswati Puja), a public holiday for Hindu civil servants. • 14 Dec 2008 (The Daily Star-Dhaka) Former prime minister and BNP Chairperson, Khaleda Zia, said that if the BNP wins the upcoming December 29 election, it would restore the May 30 and November 7 public holidays, to commemorate "the anniversary of the death of founding president Ziaur Rahman" and "'National Revolution and Solidarity Day", respectively. • 26 Oct 2008 (The Daily Star-Dhaka) Earlier today, in a move reminiscent of what happened last year, the High Court of Bangladesh issued a rule asking the government to explain, within four weeks, its cancellation of November 7 as a public holiday. • 10 Aug 2008 (bdnews24) Earlier today, Syed Fahim Munaim, chief spokesman for the head of the interim government of Bangladesh, announced that the cabinet had decided to restore the date of August 15th as an annual government holiday and national day of mourning. • 03 Aug 2008 (The Financial Express-Dhaka) Following the Awami League's (AL) recent victory in getting the Bangladesh High Court to force the government to restore the August 15 public holiday commemorating the death of Bangladesh's founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. • 27 Jul 2008 (Bangladesh News 24) As reported in our posts of August 6, and August 13, 2007, The High Court of Bangladesh was asked, last summer, to rule on the constitutionality of the cancelling of the August 15 annual public holiday. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Bangladesh 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 Bangladesh are regulated by the East Bengal Shops and Establishments Act of 1951, and the Factories Act of 1965. The actual dates are gazetted by the government every year with additional decrees added throughout the year. • Currently, in Bangladesh, the weekend is Friday and Saturday, although there have been repeated requests by the business community to align the Bangladesh weekend with the rest of the world . • The Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist communities are each entitled to additional optional public holidays depending on their religion . • The Muslim Community enjoys 5 days of optional public holidays: 4th day of Eid-ul-Azha Akheri Chahar Somba Fateha-i-Yajdaham Shab-e-Meraj 4th day of Holy Eid-ul-Fitr • The Hindu Community enjoys 7 days of optional public holidays: Sri Panchomi (Swarashwati Puja) Shibratri Doljattra Mohalaya Durgapuja (Saptami) Laksmi puja Sri Shayama Puja • The Christian Community enjoys 8 days of optional public holidays: New Year's Day Ash Wednesday Maundy Thursday Holy Saturday Easter Easter Monday Christmas Eve Boxing Day • The Buddhist Community enjoys 5 days of optional public holidays: Maghi Purnima Chaitra Sangkranti Ashari Purnima Modhu Purnima (Bhadra Purnima) Prabarana Purnima (Ashini Purnima) • National Revolution and Solidarity Day: The day was observed as National Revolution and Solidarity Day at state-level from 1976 to 1995. Coming to power in 1995, the then Awami League government stopped the practice during its tenure. After coming back to power in 2001, the BNP-led four-party coalition government resumed the practice. • August 15 is a public holiday to mark the death of the country's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This annual public holiday was canceled in 2002 by the government of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, after she won a 2001 election by defeating Mujib's daughter Sheikh Hasina, another former prime minister, who had introduced August 15 as public holiday to mourn her father after she won power in a 1996 election. The August 15 public holiday was restored again by a decision of the High Court, in July 2008. • Shaheed Day, on February 21, is also known as the Bangla Language Martyrs' Day, and was declared in 2000, by the UNESCO, as the International Mother Language Day . • Jumatul Wida is technically only observed by Muslims, however, with 83 percent of the population being Muslim, this can be treated as a national public holiday for all intents and purposes. • Bangladesh International Codes BD and BGD (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .bd (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of Bangladesh information and news: Bangladesh Bank (Bangladesh central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (Bangladesh maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in Bangladesh), and Wikipedia (includes Bangladesh commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Bangladesh, 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 Bangladesh 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 Bangladesh 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 Bangladesh, 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 2009 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Bangladesh, 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 Bangladesh, before planning any trip to Bangladesh. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.