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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Bangladesh

The list of Bangladesh 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 May 2008 (Bangladesh Ministry Of Religious Affairs) The Bangladesh Ministry Of Religious Affairs (MORA) has decided to move the upcoming Buddha Purnima public holiday, originally scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th, to Monday, May 19, 2008, instead. • 29 Nov 2007 (bdnews24) Late last night, after a meeting of the Council of Advisers, chaired by chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, the interim government of Bangladesh announced that the November 7th public holiday would be cancelled, starting in 2008. • 13 Oct 2007 (The Peninsula) Earlier today, the Religious Affairs Ministry of Bangladesh, announced that the Eid al-Fitr festival would be held on Sunday, October 14, 2007, instead of the previously announced date of October 13, because the moon was not sighted on Friday night, and that a two-day public holiday had also been declared for tomorrow and Monday. • 23 Aug 2007 (The New Straits Times) Earlier this morning, the government of Bangladesh declared a one-off public holiday for today, Thursday, August 23, 2007. Note that, as weekends are still Friday-Saturday in Bangladesh, this declaration result in a 3-day weekend. • 20 Aug 2007 (Copp Clark) The government of Bangladesh is reported to have changed the date of the upcoming Shab e-Barat public holiday from Wednesday, August 29, to Thursday, August 30, 2007, which now becomes a public holiday. • 24 Dec 2001 (The Independent-Bangladesh) The government, yesterday, restored the annual public holidays of 1995, thereby undoing the changes brought about by Awami League in 1996. As a resultof yesterday's Cabinet decision, the annual public holidays of March 17 and August 15 have been canceled, while the November 7 public holiday has been re-instated. • 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.

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. • 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. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: 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 (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 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. 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 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.

Fridays (Muslim) : Muslim holidays that occur on a Friday may, in Bangladesh, be observed on the following Saturday, either officially, or by some individuals and/or businesses independently of any official national policy regarding bank holidays, legal holidays and public 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 2008 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 public holidays news and updates pages, or subscribe to our free email newsletters.