Mercantile and Public Holidays in Sri Lanka 2026

The full 2026 holiday list

Compiled from the Government Printer’s official 2026 calendar (holidays approved under the Holidays Act, Gazette No. 2438/22 of 27 May 2025) and the Labour Department’s confirmed mercantile holiday list. A day can be several types at once:

* Islamic holidays are subject to moon-sighting confirmation and can shift by a day. Poya days are also paid holidays for shop & office employees — see below. All Saturdays and Sundays are additionally bank holidays. Source: Department of Government Printing 2026 calendar (Holidays Act, Gazette 2438/22 of 27.05.2025); mercantile holidays per Gazette 954/1 of 14.10.1996, confirmed by the Labour Department.

What you’re entitled to on a mercantile holiday

If you work in a shop or office, every mercantile holiday is a full paid day off. Your employer can only require you to work one with the Labour Commissioner’s sanction — and then they must either pay you at least double your normal daily rate, or pay you normally and give you a paid holiday in lieu before 31 December of the same year (Shop and Office Employees Act, s.7).

Public holidays that aren’t mercantile holidays (like Deepavali or Good Friday) are guaranteed days off for government offices, schools and banks — but a private shop or office can legally stay open, unless your employment contract or workplace practice says otherwise. Many employers close anyway; the law just doesn’t force them to.

Poya days explained

Every full-moon (Poya) day is a public holiday — and under the Shop and Office Employees Act, every Poya day is also a paid holiday for shop and office employees. It sits in its own legal category rather than being a “mercantile holiday”, and the difference matters if you’re asked to work: work on a Poya day must be paid at not less than 1.5× your normal daily rate, whereas a mercantile holiday earns double pay or a day in lieu. 2026 is unusual: an extra lunar month means 13 Poya days, including Adhi Poson on May 30.

Planning leave around long weekends? Check what your remaining annual and casual leave entitlement looks like — and while you’re at it, see what actually lands in your account each month with our free salary & APIT calculator.