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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for UAE

The list of UAE 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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19 Nov 2009 (Emirates News Agency-WAM) The UAE's Chairman of the Federal Human Resources Authority and Minister of Education, Humaid Obeid Al Qatami, has announced an additional public sector holiday on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009, to bride the gap between the 5-day Eid al-Adha, and the 2-day National Day, public sector holidays. • 11 Nov 2009 (Emirates News Agency-WAM) The UAE's Minister of Education, Humaid Mohammad Obaid Al Qutami, has announced that public and private schools in the UAEwill remain closed from November 26 or 27 to December 3 to mark Eid Al Adha and the National Day. • 20 Sep 2009 (The National-Abu Dhabi) Late last night, the UAE's Minister of Justice, Dr Hadef al Dhaheri, announced that the Shawwal Crescent Committee had sighted the crescent of the new Moon and that "It has been determined that Eid [public holidays] begins on Sunday [September 20]". • 17 Sep 2009 (Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority-SCA) The Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), in coordination with all financial markets, has announced that UAE financial markets will close to mark the Eid-Al-Fitr holiday starting from Saturday, 29th of Ramadan (September 19, 2009) until the 3rd day of Shawwal. • 15 Sep 2009 (Emirates News Agency-WAM) The UAE's Labour Minister, HE Saqr Ghobash, announced that, on the occasion of the upcoming Eid al-Fitr (End of Ramadan) public holidays, private sector companies and corporations would be off on the first and second days of the month of Shawwal. • 16 Aug 2009 (Emirates News Agency-Abu Dhabi) The UAE's Minister of Education and Chairman of the Federal Human Resources Authority, HE Humaid Mohammed Al Qattami, has announced that, during the upcoming month of Ramadan, federal ministries and institutions will work from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. • 13 Jul 2009 (Emirates News Agency-WAM) Earlier today, the UAE's Labour Minister, HE Saqr Ghobash Saeed Ghobash, issued a circular which declares Sunday, July 19th, 2009, as a public holiday for the UAE's private sector to also mark "Isra and Miraj". • 12 Jul 2009 (Khaleej Times Online-Dubai) Earlier today, the UAE's Minister of Education and Chairman of the Federal Governmental Human Resources Authority, HE Humaid Mohammed Al Qatami, issued a circular announcing that Sunday, July 19th, 2009, had been declared a public holiday for ministries and other federal departments on the occasion of Isra and Miraj. • 01 May 2009 (The National-Dubai) The United Arab Emirates' acting director general of the Ministry of Labour, Humaid bin Demas, is reported to have said yesterday that a non-working public holiday to mark the May 1st International Labour Day could be introduced starting in 2010. • 03 Mar 2009 (Dubai Chronicle-Dubai) The Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority has announced that the UAE financial markets will close on Sunday, March 8, 2009, to mark the public holiday for the anniversary of Prophet Mohammed's birthday. • 01 Mar 2009 (Emirates News Agency-WAM) Earlier this morning, the UAE's Minister of Labour, Saqr Gobash, announced that it had decided to change the date of the upcoming private sector public holiday, from Monday, March 9, to Saturday, March 7, 2009. This change applies to all employees in the private sector in the UAE. • 27 Feb 2009 (WAM Emirates News Agency-Dubai) The UAE's Minister of Labour, HE Saqr Ghobash, has announced that Monday, March 9, 2009, had been declared as this year's date for the private sector public holiday marking the birthday of Prophet Mohammed. • 25 Feb 2009 (WAM Emirates News Agency-Dubai) The UAE's Minister of Health, and Chairman of the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources, H.E. Humaid Mohammed Obaid Al Qattami, announced that all ministries and federal departments will remain closed on Sunday, March 8, 2009, on the occasion of Prophet Mohammed's birthday anniversary. • 02 Jan 2009 (Reuters-Dubai) UAE President, Sheikh Khalifah bin Zayed al-Nahayan, all government institutions to close for three days starting from today, following the death of Sheikh Rached Al-Mualla, the elderly ruler of Umm al-Quwain, the smallest of the seven emirates. • 15 Sep 2008 (Emirates News Agency-Abu Dhabi) Earlier today, the Emirates Astronomical Society (EAS) and Islamic Crescent Observation Project (ICOP) announced that the Eid ul Fitr (the end of Ramadan festival) will fall Oct 1 this year in most Islamic countries. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the UAE public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

Workweek: The UAE introduced a five-day government working week in 1998, but left the private sector to make its own decisions. • Weekends: Since September 2006, weekends are Fridays and Saturdays, for civil servants. The change is optional for private sector companies. • UAE International Codes AE and ARE (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .ae (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of UAE information and news: Central Bank of United Arab Emirates (UAE central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (UAE maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in UAE), and Wikipedia (includes UAE commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

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