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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Mauritania

The list of Mauritania 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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13 Dec 2007 (La Tribune-Noakchott) Following yesterday's meeting of the Council of Ministers, it was announced that the weekly day of rest in Mauritania would be moved back from Sunday to Friday, with Saturday being an additional day of rest (jour de repos supplémentaire). This change comes into effect next Monday, December 17, 2007. • 01 Dec 2006 Next parliamentary elections - January 21, 2007, followed by a presidential elections on March 11, 2007. • 08 Mar 2005 (Journal Officiel-Actes Réglementaires) Mauritania's President, Maaouya Ould Taya, has issued a decree changing the definition of the weekend (repos hebdomadaire) from Friday/Saturday to Saturday/Sunday. The change will be effective starting on Monday, April 11, 2005. • 18 Jan 2005 (Afrik.com) Mauritania's "Commission nationale mauritanienne chargée de l’observation du croissant lunaire" has announced that the upcoming Aïd el-Kebir (Feast of Sacrifice) public holiday would occur of Friday, January 21, 2005. • 14 Mar 2001 (Journal Official de la République Islamique de Mauritanie-Noakchott) Mauritania's Ministry of Labour (Ministère de la Fonction Publique, du Travail, de la Jeunesse et des Sports) has published Decree N° 2001-014, setting the weekly days of rest back to Saturday/Sunday, effective Friday, March 16, 2001. • 29 Apr 1996 (Journal Officiel de la République Islamique de Mauritanie-Noakchott) Mauritania's President has issued Decree 042-96 bis making May 1st an annual public holiday in Mauritania. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Mauritania 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 Mauritania are regulated by the 2004 Labour Code, as amended in 2007, which refers, for specific dates, to the body of laws, specifically the Loi no 92-18 du 7 décembre 1992 fixant les fêtes légales (Journal officiel, 1992-12-30, No 797, p. 544) as amended by the Décret n° 117-2003 du 10 décembre 2003 instituant une journée fériée (Journal officiel, 2003-12-30, n° 1061, p. 480). • Weekends As of 2008, weekends in Mauritania are Fridays and Saturdays, but the definition of the weekend in Mauritania has changed many times over the years. In 1960, after independence, Mauritania's week-ends were Saturdays and Sundays. In 1983, president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla changed it to Fridays and Saturdays. Sometime between 1983 and 2001 weekends must have reverted to Satuday/Sunday, because in 2001 it was changed again to Friday/Saturday. Then, in 2005, president Maaouya Ould Taya changed the week-end in Mauritania back to Saturday and Sunday. In late 2007, less than 2 years later, a cabinet decision, once again changed the week-end back to Fridays and Saturdays. • The public holidays for Tabaski (Feast of Sacrifice)and Korite (End of Ramadan) officially only last for 1 day. However, having reviewed the last 15 years' archives of "Les pages bleues du Journal Officiel de Mauritanie", a historical pattern is clearly evident of declaring the day after the these 2 public holidays also a public holiday, albeit at the last minute. • The day after New Year and the Prophet's Birthday has sometimes been declared a public holiday, but the most recent case of it happening for the New Year is 1992 and for the Prophet's Birthday it was 1993 and 1994. • Armed Forces Day (July 10): This is no longer a public holiday in Mauritania, following the the 2007 Presidential election. • Mauritania International Codes MR and MRT (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .mr (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of Mauritania information and news: ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (Mauritania maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in Mauritania), and Wikipedia (includes Mauritania 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 Mauritania, may belong to a religious group that is not common in Mauritania, 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 Mauritania. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Mauritania 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 Mauritania 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 2009 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Mauritania, 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 Mauritania, before planning any trip to Mauritania. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.