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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Iraq

The list of Iraq bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2010, 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 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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07 Jul 2010 (Al Sumaria News-Baghdad) The Iraqi government has declared an official public holiday in the Baghdad governorate, for tomorrow, Thursday July 8, 2010, marking the anniversary of the martyrdom of Al-Imam Musa bin Jafar Al-Kadhim. • 10 Mar 2010 (Kurdistan Regional Government-Erbil) The secretary of Iraq's Kurdistan Region National Assembly, Muhammad Khoshnaw, has confirmed that Thursday, March 11, and Sunday, March 14, 2010, would be regional public sector holidays throughout Kurdistan. • 02 Mar 2010 (Aswat al-Iraq-Baghdad) The Council of Ministers of Iraq's Province of Kurdistan region has announced official regional public holiday from Thursday, March 4, until Monday, March 8, 2010, inclusively, in response to a request from the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC). • 23 Feb 2010 (PUK Media-Baghdad) Iraq's President of the Supreme Committee for the Security of Elections, Major General Abdul Qader Aidan, has announced that a 3-day electoral public holiday had been declared from Saturday, March 6, until Monday, March 8, 2010, inclusively. • 02 Feb 2010 (Aswat al-Iraq-Karbala) The governor of Iraq's Province of Karbala has announced a one-off regional public sector holiday on Wednesday and Thursday, February 3-4, 2010, in all government departments. • 21 Nov 2009 (Iraq Stock Exchange-Baghdad) The Iraqi Stock Exchange has announced that it would suspend trading activity during the period from Saturday, November 28, until Thursday, December 3, 2009, inclusively, on the occasion of the Eid al-Adha public holidays. • 06 Aug 2009 (Aswat al-Iraq-Karbala) Governor Amal al-Din al-Hir has announced that the government of Iraq's Karbala province has approved a proposal by the executive to make today, Thursday, August 6, 2009, an official holiday in all state departments of the province of Karbala. • 23 Jul 2009 (Aswat al-Iraq-Arbil) The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq has declared this Saturday and Sunday, July 25 and 26, 2009, as official days off on the occasion of presidential and parliamentary elections, scheduled to take place early next week. • 13 Jul 2009 (Aswat al-Iraq News Agency-Baghdad) Earlier today, the Secretariat General of the Iraqi cabinet declared tomorrow, Tuesday, July 14, 2009, as an official public holiday, marking the anniversary of the 1958 Revolution. • 27 Jun 2009 (The Kurdish Globe-Erbil) The President of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, has asked Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to declare July 25, 2009, a national public holiday, to coincide with the Kurdistan Region's parliamentary and presidential elections. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Iraq 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: On May 8, 2007, the Council of Ministers repealed the previous Holidays And Public Holidays No.110 of 1972, in particular canceling the February 8, and July 17, public holidays. • Weekends: Article 3 of the aforementioned cabinet decree instituded Fridays and Saturdays as weekends in Iraq. In addition most offices work only half days on Thursdays. • National Iraqi Day: This public holiday was created in early 2008 as a non-controversial date that would offend none of Iraq's sectarian groups. It commemorates the date when Iraq joined the League of Nations (the UN's predecessor) in 1932. • Eid al Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) is officially listed as a 2 day holiday by the U.S. Embassy but unofficially is celebrated for up to 5 days. It is listed as a 4 day holiday here since no official sources could be found that change it from when it was officially 4 days. • April 9 (anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003) or Baghdad Liberation Day was a public holiday in Iraq from 2004-2006 but was abolished, nationally in 2007. However, it remains an official public holiday in the Kurdish autonomous region, for all businesses, government offices, schools, universities and hospitals . • July 14: This public holiday, instituted in 2007, commemorates the 1958 revolution, led by Abdelkareem Qassem, who spearheaded the Free Officers Movement that turned Iraq from a monarchy into a republic. • Novruz: This is the new year celebrations which date back to Persian times and are held in various forms in Iran, Afghanistan and some former Soviet republics. Traditionally in Iraq the festival is marked by country gatherings where tradition reigns, from costumes to food to music and dance. Nouroz is considered one of the most important Kurdish festivals. In 2006, the government of the autonomous region of Kurdistan called a three day public holiday. • Caveats: Due to the lack of stability in the country, the consistency of public holidays will be in flux. Traditional Islamic public holidays will continue to be celebrated by various factions and will always be, regardless of what the long term government proclamations might be. In addition, many of the decrees related to Saddam-era holidays, are either ignored, or take many years to take effect (one glaring example, July 17, which the Governing Council voted to scrap in 2003, but which remained until 2007). • Religious Minorities: The draft law on public holidays of 2008 recognizes the rights of some religious minorities to observe their holidays. • Christians: 25 December (although this was later declared a national public holiday) • Jews: the Day of Atonement, Pessah, and the Feast of Tabernacles. • Sabeans (Mandeans, tiny Gnostic sect that reveres John the Baptist) the Panja Feast, which is their major holiday on 7-8 August, and the little feast on 23 November. • Yazidis, the first Friday of December of every year, the first Wednesday of April according to the Eastern calendar, 23-30 September according to the Eastern calendar, and 18-21 July according to the Eastern calendar. • Iraq International Codes IQ and IRQ (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .iq (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of Iraq information and news: Central Bank of Iraq (Iraq central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (Iraq maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in Iraq), and Wikipedia (includes Iraq commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Iraq, 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 Iraq 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 Iraq 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 2010 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Iraq, 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 Iraq, before planning any trip to Iraq. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.