Mercantile holidays in Sri Lanka 2026: Poya days, public and bank holidays

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Sri Lanka holidays 2026: 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.

Source: Gazette Extraordinary of 27 May 2025 (Public and Bank Holidays 2026), amended 21 April 2026; Department of Government Printing 2026 calendar for mercantile 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 2026

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. 2026 has 13 Poya days, including an Adhi (extra) Poya.

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 or the day after it.
• 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.

Holidays by month, 2026

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

Long weekends in 2026

• Sat 28 Feb – Mon 2 Mar (Medin Full Moon Poya Day)
• Sat 11 Apr – Mon 13 Apr (Day Prior to Sinhala & Tamil New Year Day)
• Fri 1 May – Sun 3 May (Vesak Full Moon Poya Day and May Day)
• Sat 27 Jun – Mon 29 Jun (Poson Full Moon Poya Day)
• Fri 25 Dec – Sun 27 Dec (Christmas 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.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Sources: Gazette Extraordinary 27 May 2025 (No. 2438/22), Public and Bank Holidays 2026, English PDF (mirror of documents.gov.lk); Department of Government Printing, Sri Lanka Desk Calendar 2026: Public, Bank, Mercantile and Full Moon Poya Holidays (with */†/‡ flags); Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bank Holidays for 2026; Department of Labour notice: Public Holidays Following Vesak Poya Day 2026 (content is an embedded image; text taken from The Morning/Newswire reports); Department of Labour, Salary/Wages/Leave; 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 7, 7A, 7B; Holidays Act No. 29 of 1971, sections 2, 3, 5, 6.