Mercantile holidays in Sri Lanka 2027: Poya days, public and bank holidays

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Sri Lanka holidays 2027: the full list

P = public holiday (government offices, schools). B = bank holiday. M = mercantile holiday, the list private employers follow for shop and office staff. Poya days are marked.

Why some lists say 8 mercantile holidays and this page says 20. The Central Bank marks 8 days “M”: the holidays declared for shop and office employees under section 7 of the Shop and Office Employees Act. Every Poya day is a paid holiday for the same employees under section 7A, so this page also ticks M on the 12 Poya days. 8 is the declared list, not the number of paid holidays; that number is 20.

Source: Gazette Extraordinary No. 2493/05 of 16 June 2026 (Public and Bank Holidays for 2027, Holidays Act section 4); Central Bank of Sri Lanka 2027 list for the mercantile (M) flags (official document). Dates of Islamic festivals depend on the sighting of the moon and may be moved by a later Gazette; we update this page within two working days of any change.

Poya days 2027

A Poya day is the full-moon day of each lunar month. Under the Holidays Act every Full Moon Poya Day is a public holiday and a bank holiday, and under the Shop and Office Employees Act every shop and office employee must be given the day off; an employee who works on a Poya day must be paid at least one and a half times the normal daily rate. Sale of alcohol and fresh meat is restricted on Poya days. 2027 has 12 Poya days.

Public, bank and mercantile holidays: what is the difference?

Three lists exist because two laws and one annual Gazette shape the calendar.

• Public holidays are declared under the Holidays Act No. 29 of 1971. Section 2 makes every Full Moon Poya Day and every Sunday a public holiday and a bank holiday; Section 3 adds the days in the Act’s First Schedule. Section 5 makes a public holiday a dies non, a day that does not count for legal deadlines. Government offices and schools close.
• Bank holidays are the Poya days, Sundays and the days in the Act’s Second Schedule, published each year by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Banks close; nobody can be compelled to make a payment on a bank holiday, and a payment due that day falls due on the next day that is not a Poya day, Sunday or bank holiday (s.6).
• Mercantile holidays are the holidays the Minister declares by Gazette for shop and office employees under Section 7 of the Shop and Office Employees Act, together with the Poya days under Section 7A. This is the list a private employer follows. The Act caps the Section 7 declaration at nine days a year.

“Every person employed in or about the business of a shop or office shall be allowed a holiday with full remuneration on each of such days, being public holidays within the meaning of the Holidays Act, as are declared by the Minister, by Order published in the Gazette, to be holidays for the purposes of this section, so however, that number of days so declared shall not exceed nine.” Shop and Office Employees Act, section 7(1)

Which holidays must an employer give, and what to pay for working on them?

For shop and office employees the rules come from sections 7, 7A and 7B of the Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act. Wages Board trades follow their own board decisions, which are usually similar.

Show holiday pay as its own line on the payslip (for example “Poya day work, 1.5×” or “Holiday work, 2×”) so the employee and any inspector can see the rate applied. Read the companion guides on overtime and no-pay calculation and annual and casual leave.

Which 2027 holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday?

7 of the 25 holidays fall on a weekend: 3 declared mercantile holidays, 3 Poya days and 1 public and bank holiday that is not on the mercantile list. None is moved to a weekday. Whether a weekend holiday costs you anything depends on whether the employee would normally work that day.

Banks are closed on every Saturday and Sunday in any case, so a weekend bank holiday changes nothing for payment dates. Holidays Act s.6 moves a payment due on a bank holiday to the next day that is not a Poya day, Sunday or bank holiday.

Holidays by month, 2027

“Weekday holidays” counts Monday to Friday dates only, for roster and payroll planning; Saturday half-days are not deducted.

Long weekends in 2027

• Fri 15 Jan – Sun 17 Jan (Tamil Thai Pongal Day)
• Fri 22 Jan – Sun 24 Jan (Duruthu Full Moon Poya Day)
• Sat 20 Mar – Mon 22 Mar (Medin Full Moon Poya Day)
• Fri 18 Jun – Sun 20 Jun (Poson Full Moon Poya Day)
• Sat 14 Aug – Mon 16 Aug (Nikini Full Moon Poya Day)
• Fri 15 Oct – Sun 17 Oct (Vap Full Moon Poya Day)
• Sat 11 Dec – Mon 13 Dec (Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day)

Special and one-off holidays

The government can declare additional holidays by Gazette during the year, for example for elections, national events or an extra Adhi Poya, and can move an Islamic festival holiday when the moon is sighted on a different day. Treat a declared special holiday exactly like the mercantile holidays above if the Gazette says it applies to the private sector; if it is declared for the public sector only, it is at your discretion. We add any change to this table within two working days and regenerate the calendar file; the review date at the top tells you when it was last checked.

Related guides

Sources: Gazette Extraordinary No. 2493/05, 16 June 2026, Public and Bank Holidays for the Year 2027, English text (copy hosted by lankapastpapers.com; the documents.gov.lk link could not be opened on 12 November 2026); Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bank Holidays for 2027 (B, P and M codes); Daily Mirror, 6 July 2026: 2027 public and bank holidays gazetted; Holidays Act No. 29 of 1971 (PDF, Ministry of Science & Technology copy); Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act (PDF). Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act No. 19 of 1954, sections 5, 7, 7A, 7B; Holidays Act No. 29 of 1971, sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.