Iraq public holidays
Federal Iraq's official public holidays for calendar year 2026. The governing statute is the Official Holidays Law No. (12) of 2024, which repealed the Ba'ath-era Official Holidays Law No. 110 of 1972 together with RCC Resolutions 886 of 1979 and 210 of 1989, Governing Council Resolution No. 1 of 2003 and CPA Order No. 25 of 2005. Article 1(First) lists the general public holidays; Article 1(Second) provides that the first day of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha is fixed by a statement issued jointly by the Shia and Sunni Waqf Diwans and sent to the Prime Minister's Office, and that where the two Diwans differ the holiday runs from the first day set by one to the last day set by the other. Article 3(First) lets the Council of Ministers declare temporary holidays of up to 7 days a year. The weekend is Friday and Saturday.
| Current value | 16 days held |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| In force until | 2026-12-31 |
| Official source | Official Holidays Law No. (12) of 2024, Article 1, published in al-Waqai al-Iraqiya (the Iraqi Gazette) No. 4777 of 27 May 2024 (19 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1445), signed by President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid — the statutory list; 2026 Gregorian dates cross-checked against the Central Bank of Iraq's published 'العطل الرسمية لعام 2026' calendar (https://cbi.iq/page/78) and against Council of Ministers holiday decisions reported by the Iraqi News Agency (INA) |
| Last verified | 2026-07-24 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
TWO CORRECTIONS TO THE BRIEF THAT LAUNCHED THIS FILE. (1) REPUBLIC DAY, 14 JULY, IS NOT A HOLIDAY UNDER THE CURRENT LAW. Article 1(First) of Law No. 12 of 2024 — verified verbatim from the gazette PDF — lists exactly: Friday and Saturday weekly; 1 Muharram; 10 Muharram (Ashura); 12 Rabi al-Awwal (Mawlid); 1-3 Shawwal (Eid al-Fitr); 10-13 Dhu al-Hijjah (Eid al-Adha); 18 Dhu al-Hijjah (Ghadir); 1 January; 6 January (Army Day); 21 March (Nowruz); 1 May (Workers' Day); 16 March (Ba'athist-crimes remembrance). 14 July does NOT appear, and it is absent from the CBI's 2026 calendar. 14 July WAS a federal holiday under the repealed Law No. 110 of 1972 — the widely circulated Shafaq News report that 'Iraq suspends official work on 14 July for the anniversary of the founding of its republic' is dated 11 July 2021 and describes the OLD law; do not treat it as current. The KURDISTAN REGION does still observe 14 July under its own regional holiday calendar (Kurdish outlets announced Tue 14 Jul 2026 as a holiday 'under the annual calendar of official holidays in the Kurdistan Region'), which is the likely source of the confusion. (2) 3 OCTOBER (National Day) and 10 DECEMBER (Victory Day) ARE observed — they appear on the Central Bank of Iraq's official 2026 holiday calendar — but they are likewise NOT in Article 1(First) of Law 12/2024; they rest on the Council of Ministers' Article 3(First) power to declare temporary holidays. They are served here because the CBI, a state institution, publishes them for 2026, but a consumer needing statutory certainty should treat 3 Oct and 10 Dec as administratively declared rather than statutory. MOON SIGHTING: dates marked approximate on the CBI calendar (17 Jan, 20 Mar, 27 May, 16 Jun, 5 Aug, 25 Aug) follow the lunar calendar and can shift by a day. The two 2026 Eids are now HISTORICAL FACT, not forecast: the Council of Ministers suspended official work Wed 18 Mar to Mon 23 Mar 2026 for Eid al-Fitr (first day of Eid Friday 20 Mar, resumption Tue 24 Mar; Iraqi News Agency, https://ina.iq/ar/local/258181-.html) and Tue 26 May to Sat 30 May 2026 for Eid al-Adha (resumption Sun 31 May), with Eid al-Ghadir on Thu 4 Jun 2026. WHAT IS NOT MODELLED HERE: Article 1(Third) lets the governorates containing the holy cities (Najaf, Karbala, Kadhimiya, Samarra) suspend work locally for up to 3 days around religious holidays, so local closures in those governorates exceed this list. Article 2 grants additional COMMUNITY-SPECIFIC holidays not observed nationally — Christian (Christmas, two days of Easter), Sabean-Mandaean (5 days Creation Feast in March, 4 days Great Feast in July, 2 days Lesser Feast in November, Prophet Yahya's birthday in May) and Yazidi (Fasting Feast on the first Friday of Eastern December, Yazidi New Year on the first Wednesday of Eastern April, Jama Feast 23-30 Eastern September, Summer Forty Feast 20-21 July). The two entries the CBI calendar labels only 'مناسبة دينية' (religious occasion), 17 Jan and 5 Aug 2026, are left unnamed here because the CBI does not name them; their Hijri positions (≈27 Rajab 1447 and ≈20 Safar 1448) are noted as indicative only. ACCESS NOTE: the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers' holidays page (cabinet.iq/ar/static/mFTR4SIxc!iRMmQ) renders client-side and returns an empty shell to a plain fetch; the moj.gov.iq gazette PDF and the CBI calendar page are both fetchable and were used instead.
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/iq/public-holidays
# Free.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/iq/public-holidays/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/iq/public-holidaysOther Iraq series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · minimum wage · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates