Site Map

Contact

Search

Home

Guyana

Home
Q++ Studio
World Holidays

Downloads
References

About Us
Subscribe
Site Map
Contact
Search
News
Blog
FAQ

Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Guyana

The list of Guyana 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

 © 1989-2009 Alter Ego Services

15 Dec 2008 (Starcom Network News-Bridgetown) Guyana's Local government minister, Kellawan Lall, has announced that the upcoming municipal elections, the first since 1994, had been postponed until the end of 2009. • 29 Dec 2006 (The Guyana Chronicle) Guyana's Ministry of Home Affairs has announced that both New Year’s Day and Eid-ul-Azah would be observed as national public holidays, on the same date of January 1, 2007, without this coincidence giving rise to a day in lieu public holiday. • 22 Dec 2006 (Stabroek News) January 1 has been declared a public holiday to observe Eid-ul-Adha, although within the local Muslim community, the festival day will be observed on different dates. • 23 Aug 2006 (Government Information Agency-GINA) The Presisent of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, has authorised the Ministry of Home Affairs to gazette Monday, August 28, 2006 as a one-off public holiday. • 04 May 2005 (GINA-Georgetown) Guyana President, Bharrat Jagdeo, will be at the Monument Site, Plantation Highbury, East Bank Berbice, to mark the 166th anniversary of East Indian arrival in Guyana. May 5th will have been an official public holidays for the first time this year. • 08 Nov 2004 (Guyana Government Information Agency-Georgetown) Guyana's Home Affairs Permanent Secretary, Angela Johnson, has announced that Eid-ul-Fitr is not a public holiday. • 29 Apr 2004 (GINA-Georgetown) The Guyana National Assembly approved the motion by the Special Select Committee on the Review of Public Holidays, adding two public holidays: May 26 (Independence Day) and May 5, (Arrival Day). • 23 Mar 2004 (Government Information Agency-GINA) Guyana's House Special Select Committee, formed last year to review Guyana's list of official public holidays, met last week to get public opinion on the proposed inclusion of May 5 and May 26 as official public holidays in Guyana. • 15 Dec 2003 (Government Information Agency-GINA) Guyana's House Special Select Committee formed to review the Guyana Public Holidays Act met to select representatives to the body, among which the Minister of Home Affairs. • 09 May 2003 (The Guyana Chronicle) Guyana's Ministry of Home Affairs has announced that Wednesday, May 14, 2003, would be a public holiday in observance of the Muslim holiday of You-Man Nabi (the Prophet's Birthday). • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Guyana 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: The law of record for the official public holidays in Guyana is chapter 19:07 of the Laws of Guyana, also known as the Public Holidays Act of 1919 otherwise known as the "Clementi structure” named for Sir Cecil Clementi, who administered the colony in 1919. After independence, a resolution on the holidays (Public Holidays Ordinance, Chapter 61), tabled by the member from Ruimveldt, L.F.S. Burnham on December 12, 1962, was actually implemented in the second half of 1964 and it was expected to be formalized in the year 1965, but it was postponed after the PPP lost the December 1964 PR elections. The 1919 Holidays Acts was thus finally changed only in 1967 through Ordinance no. 4 of 1967 (The 1967 Holiday Act) which specify the list of public holidays in clause 3(1). This was followed by The Holiday Act of 1969 which actually only amended the name of the February 23 public holiday. Section 4-(1) of the Holidays With Pay Act 1995 (Cap. 99:02) further refines the concept of what is a public holiday in Guyana. • Upcoming Changes: There is currently heated debate in Guyana about public holidays changes. Although two have just been added, namely Independence Day and Arrival Day, other changes are also being discussed. There is talk about no longer moving public holidays that fall on Sunday to the following Monday, removing Boxing Day and/or Caricom day, switching The Prophet's Birthday for Eid al Fitr (End of Ramadan), or just adding the latter, as well as adding a public holiday to recognize the indigenous peoples. As soon as we are able to establish that official changes have been made, they will be integrated into the information that we provide to you. • There is often confusion about the actual dates of Muslim public holidays in Guyana., as there are 2 organisms that each, independently declare dates for the beginning of Muslim months; the Central Moon Sighting Committee of Guyana (CMSCG) and the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG). They often declare contradictory dates, and to add to the confusion, the government also declares a date somewhat independently of these 2 organisms . • Deepavali: The official use of the name Deepavali, would indicate that this public holiday is calculated based on the southern Indian calendrical method (as opposed to the name Diwali which would indicate a norther Indian calculation method). However, an analysis of the dates of this public holiday in past years, including 2008, indicates that the calculation method is the northern Indian method. • Guyana International Codes GY and GUY (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .gy (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of Guyana information and news: Bank of Guyana (Guyana central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (Guyana maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in Guyana), and Wikipedia (includes Guyana commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

Religion of Specific Business Contacts : Some of the business contacts that you may be trying to meet in Guyana, may belong to a religious group that is not common in Guyana, 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 Guyana. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

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