Holidays in India 2026: Complete Calendar & Employer Guide

Why did your Bengaluru team log off for four days while your Mumbai team worked straight through? India's holiday calendar is the answer, and the catch is that it is not one calendar. It is 29 of them.

Only three holidays are compulsory for every employer in the country. Everything after that depends on the state your employee sits in, the festivals they personally observe, and which days the Reserve Bank of India closes settlement. For a company running payroll from New York or London, that gap is where missed salary dates and silent inboxes come from.

This is the working reference our payroll and onboarding teams use: the verified 2026 dates, the legal basis behind each category, and the days that actually stop money from moving. For how the same rules map onto statutory leave entitlements, read our companion guide on leave policy laws and holidays in India.

What are the national holidays in India in 2026?

India has exactly three national holidays. They are fixed by date, apply to every state, union territory and sector, and no employer can trade them away. Whether your employee sits in Delhi or Kochi, public sector or private, they are paid and off.

One correction worth making, because a lot of published calendars get it wrong: this entitlement does not come from the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. That statute governs when banks close.

Your obligation to pay employees for these three days comes from state law, usually the state's Industrial Establishments (National and Festival Holidays) Act or its Shops and Establishments Act. Tamil Nadu's National, Festival and Special Holidays Act, 1958 is the template most states followed.

"Employees have the right to receive paid leave for three national holidays and additional festival holidays as determined by the respective state governments. The specific holidays may differ across states, which is a reflection of the rich cultural and regional diversity prevalent in India."

That is Khalid Khan writing on Indian employee rights to public holidays, and it is the cleanest one line summary of how the system is built. Three days from the centre, everything else from the states.

How many public holidays does an Indian employee actually get?

There is no single national number, which is why answers online swing anywhere from 8 to 25. The honest answer is that four separate lists stack on top of each other.

• Three national holidays: Compulsory for every employer, with no exceptions.
• Seventeen central gazetted holidays: Binding on central government offices, public sector undertakings and banks. Most private employers adopt part of the list.
• State holidays: Each state and union territory publishes its own list, and several run past 20 additional days.
• Restricted holidays: A central annexure of optional festivals from which each employee chooses two.

Stack those four and most private employers in India settle on 10 to 14 paid holidays a year, assembled from the three nationals plus a selection that matches where their people actually sit. For the wider policy scaffolding that number belongs to, see our guide to HR policies in India.

When you need to confirm a single state rather than take anyone's word for it, the government's own state and union territory holiday calendar is the primary source.

What are the central gazetted holidays in India 2026?

Gazetted holidays are declared each year by the Department of Personnel and Training. The 2026 list was issued through Office Memorandum F.No. 12/2/2023-JCA and carries 17 holidays.

Here is the detail almost every calendar skips: only 14 of the 17 are fixed centrally. The remaining three are selected locally, by DoPT for offices in Delhi and by the Central Government Employees Welfare Coordination Committee in each state capital. That is the first legitimate reason a national calendar and a local one can disagree without either being wrong.

Note: Islamic holiday dates depend on lunar sighting and are only confirmed close to the day. The Department of Personnel and Training publishes the final position each time.

Two of the 17 land on a weekend in 2026, Independence Day on a Saturday and Diwali on a Sunday, so the number of paid days employees actually feel is lower than the list suggests. Expect a compensatory off conversation in both weeks. For how the rest of the annual compliance cycle behaves alongside this, see our deep dive on statutory compliance in HR in India.

What are restricted holidays and how do employees pick them?

Restricted holidays are festivals the central government recognises but does not close offices for. They sit in Annexure-II of the same DoPT memorandum, and each employee may take any two of them during the year.

Ten employees can therefore take ten different pairs of days. Someone in Chennai picks Pongal in January. A colleague in Mumbai picks Gudi Padwa in March. Both are correct, and neither shows up on a central calendar.

From running these elections for a couple of thousand India based employees, the process that works is unglamorous: collect every choice in January and treat it as committed leave for the rest of the year. The teams that struggle handle each request as it arrives, which is how three people end up out during the same release week.

If you want a policy that handles this the same way every year, our free holiday and leave policy tool drafts one by state in a couple of minutes.

How does India's holiday system compare with the US, UK and Singapore?

Teams used to a single federal calendar are usually surprised by three things: how few days are truly mandatory, how much varies by state, and how many dates move with the moon.

The state variation is the part that costs money. A day off in Karnataka can be an ordinary working day in Maharashtra. Kerala goes quiet for Onam while Bengaluru runs as normal. Plan on one national calendar and you get stalled transfers and empty inboxes in the same week.

If this is your first India team, our walkthrough for a US company hiring employees in India covers the rest of the setup sequence.

What are the state holidays in India in 2026?

Every state and union territory declares its own list under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, and several add more than 20 days to the central calendar.

They fall into five recognisable buckets, which makes them far easier to plan than the raw count suggests. The lists below are the same reference our onboarding team keeps internally, refreshed each December as state notifications come out.

Which harvest festivals are state holidays in 2026?

Harvest festivals cluster in January and April. They mark the agricultural cycle and close work properly in the states that observe them, not just on paper.

Which regional New Year days are observed in 2026?

India does not have one New Year. It has at least fifteen, and most are recognised state holidays. April 14 alone is a New Year in five different regions, which makes it one of the most fragmented dates on the calendar.

Which state formation days are holidays in 2026?

States and union territories mark their formation or accession with a public holiday. Most cluster on November 1, the anniversary of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, which means a single date closes offices in six different places.

Which birth and anniversary days are state holidays in 2026?

This is the most regional category on the whole calendar. A date that closes offices in Kolkata means nothing in Ahmedabad, and there is no pattern to learn beyond checking the state.

What other state specific holidays apply in 2026?

A handful of observances do not fit any bucket above. Mizoram carries the longest tail here, with four separate local days that no central list mentions.

When you need the full leave and holiday position for one state rather than the national view, these are our state by state breakdowns.

• Read leave policy in Tamil Nadu for the four day Pongal close in January.
• Read leave policy in Kerala for the Onam window and the heavier Christmas observance.
• Read leave policy in Maharashtra for the ten day Ganesh Chaturthi slowdown in Mumbai and Pune.
• Read leave policy in Karnataka if your engineering team sits in Bengaluru.
• Read leave policy in West Bengal for the longest festive shutdown in the country.
• Read leave policy in Punjab for Lohri, Vaisakhi and the Guru Nanak Jayanti observance.
• Read leave policy in Gujarat where Diwali doubles as the new financial year.
• Read leave policy in Telangana for Bathukamma, Ugadi and the June formation day.
• Read leave policy in Andhra Pradesh for the Sankranti cluster and Vizag based teams.
• Read leave policy in Uttar Pradesh for Raksha Bandhan, Chhath and the Noida corridor.
• Read leave policy in Rajasthan for Maharana Pratap Jayanti and the Jaipur calendar.
• Read leave policy in Bihar for the four day Chhath Puja travel window in November.
• Read leave policy in Odisha for Rath Yatra, Utkal Divas and the Bhubaneswar list.

Between them, those thirteen cover the states where the large majority of India based teams actually sit.

Which festivals cause the biggest slowdowns for global teams?

Declared holidays and actual output are two different curves. These are the windows where the second one falls regardless of what the calendar says, and they are the ones worth putting in your delivery plan.

• Diwali, November 8, 2026: India's largest festival, five days long, observed everywhere. It falls on a Sunday in 2026, but the working days either side are effectively gone. Expect four to five soft days across Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
• Navratri and Durga Puja, October 11 to 20, 2026: Nine nights closing with Vijayadashami on October 20. West Bengal declares holidays from Maha Saptami onward, so Kolkata teams are out for five to seven days.
• Onam, August 26, 2026: Kerala's harvest festival. Offices in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram close for up to five days, and Thiruvonam shares the date with Milad-un-Nabi this year.
• Ganesh Chaturthi, September 14, 2026: Ten days across Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Telangana. Mumbai teams slow for the whole stretch, and non observing states feel it through anyone reporting into Mumbai.
• Holi, March 4, 2026: A Wednesday. Workplaces across North India stop informally even in cities where it is not a declared holiday, and Thursday rarely recovers.
• Pongal and Makar Sankranti, January 14 to 17, 2026: Tamil Nadu closes for four days. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra each take at least one.
• Eid al-Fitr, March 21 and Eid al-Adha, May 27, 2026: Both lunar and confirmed close to the day. March 21 is a Saturday, so the impact is small. May 27 is a Wednesday and needs a buffer on both sides.
• Chhath Puja, November 15, 2026: Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh, with heavy travel on both sides of the main day. It lands a week after Diwali, which extends the November lull.

One correction on that list, because several 2026 calendars in circulation get it wrong: Navratri is often published as a September window. It is not. Vijayadashami is October 20, 2026, which places Ghatasthapana on October 11 and Maha Ashtami on October 18. If your leave planner shows Durga Puja in September, it needs updating.

What are the bank holidays in India 2026?

Bank holidays are a separate list, set by the Reserve Bank of India in coordination with state governments. A public holiday does not always close banks, and a bank holiday is not always a public holiday. When banks do close, domestic clearing stops and inbound or outbound wires can sit for a day or more. This is the distinction that causes most late salary runs.

We run monthly payroll for a couple of thousand India based employees on behalf of clients in the US, UK, Singapore, Canada and Australia, and this is reliably the first operational surprise for a new team. The closures follow regional festivals rather than the central list, so the fix is to build the cycle around them. See how the payroll cycle in India is normally structured.

The working rule for finance teams is simple: initiate salary and contractor payments at least two business days before any state specific closure, and never on a second or fourth Saturday. RBI's holiday matrix is filterable by city and month, and the final list for a year is published in December of the year before.

For the provident fund, professional tax and TDS cutoffs that sit alongside these closures, see our India payroll deadlines calendar.

When are the long weekends in India 2026?

A long weekend forms when a holiday lands on a Friday or Monday, or when a Tuesday or Thursday holiday can be bridged with one leave day. In 2026 there are eight worth planning around, and two dates that get published as long weekends but are not.

The two that are commonly miscounted: Holi on Wednesday March 4 needs two bridge days to reach a weekend, so it is a single day off with a soft Thursday, not a long weekend. Independence Day on Saturday August 15 has no bridge closure after it, and normal settlement resumes on Monday August 17. Plan both as ordinary single days.

Across roughly 300 client accounts the pattern holds every year. Assume a 60 to 80 percent drop in India side output during Diwali week, arrange headquarters cover three weeks ahead, and keep launches and board milestones out of that window. Teams in the US, UK and Singapore absorb most of the load if they get the warning early.

Which Indian holidays affect international payroll and wire transfers?

Compliance impact and cash movement impact are not the same thing. Most holidays only matter for leave records. These five actually move money late, and each has a clean fix.

1. Republic Day, January 26: A fixed national holiday and a non business day for RBI. Clear January end payroll by Friday January 23.
2. Holi, March 4: A Wednesday, and much of North India takes Thursday as well. Initiate anything due between March 2 and March 6 by Friday February 27.
3. The two Eids, March 21 and May 27: Both lunar and confirmed late. March 21 is a Saturday so cash impact is minimal. May 27 is a Wednesday and needs a one day buffer either side.
4. Independence Day, August 15: A Saturday in 2026, and it is the third Saturday, so no bridge closure follows. Settlement resumes normally on Monday August 17.
5. Diwali, November 6 to 11: The longest disruption of the year. Budget four to six business days of slowed operations and delayed settlement, and fund your India account before Thursday November 5.

Each of those is a scheduling problem rather than a compliance problem, which is why they are cheap to solve once and then forget about.

Where it does turn into a compliance problem is a contractor payment caught mid clearing on a state only holiday. Our note on cross border contractor payment risks covers that failure mode and how to document it.

The statutory filing side, where a deadline landing next to Diwali is a genuine risk rather than an inconvenience, is set out in our guide to payroll compliance in India.

Is election day a paid holiday in India?

Yes, and it is one of the most commonly missed obligations for foreign employers. Under Section 135B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, every employee entitled to vote gets a paid holiday on polling day. No wage deduction is permitted, the entitlement covers daily wage and casual workers, and an employer who does not grant it is liable to a fine.

This matters because it never appears on a published holiday calendar. It is an extra paid day that lands with a few weeks of notice. In 2026 it applied to Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal for the April assembly elections, and bye-elections keep triggering it.

"The Election Commission of India has announced that a paid holiday will be granted on polling days for the 2026 Assembly elections and bye-elections." Posted by IANS on X.

The Press Information Bureau release on paid holiday for polling day is the document to keep on file if anyone questions the entitlement.

What changed for holidays under India's new labour codes?

The four labour codes came into force on November 21, 2025, which makes 2026 the first full calendar year under them. Two changes matter for holiday and leave planning.

• Annual leave with wages now vests after 180 days worked in a calendar year, down from 240, at one day for every 20 days worked under Section 32 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code. New joiners qualify roughly two months earlier than before.
• Where a state law is more generous than the central framework, the state position continues to apply. The codes consolidated the paperwork without flattening the state by state holiday variation, so the 28 state lists are still the operative reference.

The three national holidays and the state festival holiday obligation are untouched, so nothing in the calendar above changes because of the codes. For everything else that did move, read our breakdown of the new labour codes in India.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment publishes the official FAQs on the codes, and they are the reference to cite in an internal policy document.

What should you already plan for in 2027?

Four dates in 2027 are already fixed, and three of them land badly. Two of your four guaranteed days off disappear into the weekend, which usually triggers a compensatory off conversation with employees in states that require one.

Everything else waits on notifications. DoPT publishes the central gazetted list around the middle of the preceding year, states follow through the autumn, and RBI's final state wise bank list lands in December 2026. Build your 2027 draft on the four dates above, then revise once in January rather than chasing every notification as it appears.

How Wisemonk handles India's holiday calendar for global teams

Wisemonk is an India native Employer of Record. We hire, pay and manage employees in India for companies that do not want to set up a local entity, and the holiday calendar is one of the things we take off your desk entirely.

In practice that means tracking all 28 state notifications, running restricted holiday elections in January, and building bank closures into the payroll cycle so salaries clear on the date you promised. See what EOR services in India include alongside that.

India is where we are strongest, and we do it with our own team on the ground rather than through a local partner. If you are starting from zero, our walkthrough on how to hire employees in India covers the sequence from offer letter to first payslip.

If you already have an entity and only need the monthly run handled, payroll in India is available on its own, holiday calendar included.

If you are still comparing providers, our review of the best EOR services in India sets out how the options differ on local presence and compliance depth.

What our clients say

Founders and HR leaders at fast growing companies across the US, UK and Europe run their India teams with us. Two examples of what that looks like in practice.

Onform, sports technology. The team needed India based engineers and researchers to accelerate its product roadmap, without setting up an entity or managing state level compliance in house. We handled hiring, employment and payroll end to end.

"I highly recommend Wisemonk. They helped us connect with exceptional engineers and researchers in India who are important contributors to our team. Their team was easy to work with, transparent throughout the process, and instrumental in helping us build a strong product team in India." Krishna Ramachandran, Co-founder, Onform

Read the full Onform India engineering team story.