Saudi Arabia public holidays
Official public holidays for 2026 under Article 112 of the Saudi Labor Law (Royal Decree M/51 of 1426H), administered by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: four occasions totalling ~10 paid days — Founding Day, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and National Day. Islamic (Hijri) holiday dates are set by moon-sighting; the 2026 dates below were officially announced by the Saudi authorities and are past/confirmed.
| Current value | 10 days held |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| In force until | 2026-12-31 |
| Official source | Saudi Labor Law, Article 112 (Royal Decree M/51 of 1426H, as amended), administered by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development; 2026 Hijri dates per the Saudi moon-sighting announcements (Umm al-Qura calendar / Supreme Court): Eid al-Fitr first day announced 20 March 2026, Eid al-Adha (10 Dhul Hijjah) 27 May 2026 with Arafah on 26 May 2026 |
| Last verified | 2026-07-24 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
STATUTORY SCOPE. Article 112 of the Labor Law grants private-sector workers paid leave on four occasions: Eid al-Fitr (4 days, starting the day after the 29th of Ramadan per the Umm al-Qura calendar), Eid al-Adha (4 days, starting on Arafah/9 Dhul Hijjah), National Day (23 September) and Founding Day (22 February) — 10 days in total, which is the count represented above. A Council of Ministers decision allows each Eid holiday to be set at a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 5 working days, and the government routinely EXTENDS the public-sector (and often private-sector) Eid breaks well beyond the statutory 4 days by bridging weekends; those discretionary extensions vary year to year and per sector and are NOT reflected here — this list carries the statutory Article 112 anchor days only. MOON-SIGHTING: the two fixed Gregorian holidays (Founding Day 22 Feb, National Day 23 Sep) are certain; the Eid dates are Hijri and depend on the official Saudi crescent sighting. For 2026 these are already settled/past: Saudi Arabia announced Eid al-Fitr Day 1 = Friday 20 March 2026 (crescent not sighted on 18 March, so Ramadan ran 30 days), and the crescent of Dhul Hijjah was sighted such that Arafah = 26 May and Eid al-Adha (10 Dhul Hijjah) = 27 May 2026. Note the Saudi Eid al-Fitr fell one day EARLIER than in some other jurisdictions (e.g. Malaysia observed Day 1 on 21 March 2026) — a normal consequence of independent moon-sighting. The Eid cluster dates listed (Mar 20-23; May 26-29) are the statutory 4-day spans from the announced first day; if National Day (23 Sep, a Wednesday in 2026) or Founding Day (22 Feb, a Sunday) coincide with the Friday/Saturday weekend, Article 112 gives a compensating day — neither clashes in 2026. SOURCE ACCESS: HRSD guidance article 322 sets out the Article 112 entitlements; individual annual holiday circulars are issued by Royal Court / Council of Ministers and reported via the Saudi Press Agency (spa.gov.sa), which geo-blocks some non-browser clients (HTTP 403). This is a FREE series. 2027 status (2026-07-27): a SAMA *banking* closure calendar for 1447-1450H exists (sama.gov.sa Holidays and Working Hours; Eid FI windows Hijri-committed, Gregorian mapping independently confirmed via Umm al-Qura) but this series serves CIVIL holidays (Labor Law art. 112) — a different basis, so it was NOT merged. Civil 2027 Eid dates await official announcement. See 2027-holidays-servable.json (SA) in the research repo.
Get it programmatically
curl https://mearef.dev/v1/sa/public-holidays
# Free.
# History: curl https://mearef.dev/v1/sa/public-holidays/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://mearef.dev/provenance/sa/public-holidaysOther Saudi Arabia series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · minimum wage · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates