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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Sri Lanka

The list of Sri Lanka 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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25 Jan 2010 (The Daily Mirror-Colombo) Sri Lanka's Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs, D. Dissanayaka, has announced that Wednesday, Janauary 27, 2010, would be a one-off public holiday. • 18 Sep 2009 (The Daily Mirror-Colombo) Although the upcoming Ramazan holiday is an official bank holiday in Sri Lanka, many banks have announced that some of their branches would be open on Monday, September 21, 2009. • 17 Jun 2009 (Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs-Colombo) Sri Lanka's Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs has released its official list of bank and public holidays for 2010. • 14 Jun 2009 (Independent Television Network-Colombo) Sri Lanka's Deputy Commissioner General of Tax Control, Mahinda Medagoda, has announced that as part of an effort by the civil service to rebuild the economy of Sri Lanka, Inland Revenue employees have voluntarily offered to work on public holidays. • 02 Jun 2009 (The Daily News-Colombo) Sri Lanka's Anuradhapura National Poson Festival Steering Committee has requested that the Public Administration and Home Affairs Ministry declare Monday, June 8, 2009, as a public holiday in lieu of Poson Poya day falling on Sunday, June 7. • 19 May 2009 (NIDAHASA News-Colombo) Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has declared tomorrow, Wednesday, May 20, 2009, as a national public holiday to celebrate the end of the LTTE rebellion. • 18 May 2009 (Times Online-Colombo) Sri Lanka's Government Information Department has announced that Parliament had been prorogued and would be reconvened on Tuesday, at which time it is reported that Friday, May 22, 2009, would be declared a national public holiday, to celebrate the end of the LTTE rebellion. • 17 May 2009 (The Sunday Times-Colombo) During next Tuesday's ceremonial address to the nation from Parliament, Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is expected to announce a new national public holiday, to be designated National Liberation Day. • 14 May 2009 (Central Bank of Sri Lanka-Colombo) Sri Lanka's banks, and its stock market (the Colombo Stock Exchange), will be closed tomorrow afternoon, Friday, May 15, 2009. • 24 Mar 2009 (The Island-Colombo) Sri Lanka's Commercial Bank of Ceylon has announced its hours of operation during the upcoming 6-day public holidays due to the conjunction of the weekend and of 3 annual public holidays, the Bak Full Moon Poya Day (April 9), Good Friday (April 10), Sinhala and Tamil New Year (April 13-14). • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Sri Lanka 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 declaration of official bank holidays and public holidays in Sri Lanka is regulated by section 4 of the Holidays Act. No. 29 of 1971, and the list and dates of these bank holidays and public holidays is announced annually by the Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs. • The full moon Poya Day public holiday of each month is a public holiday with pay for monthly paid employees. If an employee is required to work on such public holidays, then he shall be paid an extra half day’s wage in addition to the monthly wage. When a poya day falls on a weekly holiday or public holiday, no additional holiday need be given to employees in lieu of the poya day . • However, banks seem to move fixed-date public holidays that fall on a Sunday to the following Monday. • Sri Lanka International Codes LK and LKA (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .lk (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of Sri Lanka information and news: Central Bank of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (Sri Lanka maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in Sri Lanka), and Wikipedia (includes Sri Lanka commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Sri Lanka, 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 Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka, 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.

Solar Holidays : The calculation of moon phases, moonrises, moonsets, equinoxes, solstices, sunrises, and sunsets used to predict solar bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Sri Lanka are based on the geographical location of Colombo (latitude 6,9°N, longitude 79,8°E, GMT+5,5 hours, no summer time rules). Note that many countries in South-East Asia are progressively changing the recurrence rule of some of their lunar/solar holidays to rules based on fixed dates of the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Therefore, while the dates predicted above for 2011 and beyond are currently technically correct, the rules of these holidays may change in the next few years. For more details on lunar and solar holidays, see the Lunisolar Footnotes.

Lunisolar Holidays : The calculation of moon phases, moonrises, moonsets, sunrises, and sunsets used to predict lunar bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Sri Lanka are based on the geographical location of Colombo (latitude 6,9°N, longitude 79,8°E, GMT+6,0 hours, no summer time rules). Note that many countries in South-East Asia are progressively changing the recurrence rule of some of their lunar/solar holidays to rules based on fixed dates of the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Therefore, while the dates predicted above for 2011 and beyond are currently technically correct, the rules of these holidays may change in the next few years. For more details on lunar and solar holidays, see the Lunisolar Footnotes.

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 Sri Lanka, 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 Sri Lanka, before planning any trip to Sri Lanka. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.