Public holidays Cameroon 2026: calendar, pay and 2027

Public holidays Cameroon 2026 number ten: four civil holidays on fixed dates — New Year’s Day (Thursday 1 January), Youth Day (Wednesday 11 February), Labour Day (Friday 1 May), National Day (Wednesday 20 May) — and six religious holidays: end of Ramadan (Friday 20 March), Good Friday (Friday 3 April), Ascension (Thursday 14 May), Feast of the Sheep (Wednesday 27 May), Assumption (Saturday 15 August) and Christmas (Friday 25 December). Christmas is the last holiday of the year. Updated 12 November 2026.

The list comes from Law n° 73/5 of 7 December 1973 setting the regime of statutory holidays (fêtes légales), amended and supplemented by Law n° 76/8 of 8 July 1976. Below are the calendar of public holidays Cameroon 2026, the difference between a compulsory and an optional day off, the Sunday rule, the pay of a worked holiday and the 2027 dates.

In brief

• Ten statutory holidays: 4 civil (article 2) and 6 religious (article 3).
• Stopping work is compulsory on civil holidays for everyone; it is optional on religious holidays for workers over 18 (article 5).
• Working on a statutory holiday entitles the employee, on top of the pay for the work actually done, to an allowance of the same amount (article 8).
• A civil holiday on a Sunday: the following day takes its place. A religious holiday on a Sunday: the next day is a holiday only by presidential order.

Calendar of public holidays Cameroon 2026

“Optional” applies to workers over 18. Nine of the ten public holidays Cameroon 2026 fall on a weekday, four of them between 1 and 27 May.

What the law says about public holidays Cameroon 2026

The reference text is not the Labour Code but the 1973 law: it splits statutory holidays into two categories and refers to its articles 5 to 8.

• Article 2, civil holidays: New Year’s Day, Youth Day, Labour Day, National Day.
• Article 3, religious holidays: Ascension, Good Friday, Assumption, Christmas, end of Ramadan, Feast of the Sheep.
• Article 5: stopping work is compulsory on civil holidays for all workers; it is not compulsory on religious holidays for workers over 18.
• Article 6: exception for domestic staff, services that cannot be interrupted and continuous-process plants, on a list set by the Government.
• Article 9: making up holidays that were worked is covered by separate regulations.

Compulsory or optional: the distinction that matters in payroll

There is no unpaid public holiday in Cameroon: the distinction is about stopping work, not about pay. A civil holiday closes the business; a religious holiday may still be worked by adults, while under-18s keep their rest day. Many employers close on all ten public holidays Cameroon 2026 by custom: write the rule into your internal regulations, since a settled custom becomes binding.

Sundays and bridge days: public holidays Cameroon 2026 do not all move

• Civil holiday on a Sunday or on another holiday: the following day is treated as the holiday “as regards working conditions and pay” (article 2), automatically.
• Religious holiday on a Sunday or on another holiday: nothing is automatic. The President of the Republic may, by order, declare the following day a holiday on which work is allowed (article 3); otherwise the Monday is a normal working day.

No holiday fell on a Sunday in 2026. In 2027, Assumption falls on Sunday 15 August: Monday 16 will only be a holiday if an order says so.

Bridge days are never automatic

Article 4 allows the President of the Republic to declare the day before or after a statutory holiday a holiday when that holiday falls on a Friday or a Tuesday. It is a power, not a right. Two precedents: order n° 317/CAB/PR of 2 May 2022, which made Tuesday 3 May 2022 a holiday, and order n° 0018/CAB/PR of 9 February 2025, which made Monday 10 February 2025 a holiday. Without an order, there is no bridge day: the employee takes annual leave.

Paying public holidays Cameroon 2026: the rules

• Article 7, day not worked: the compulsory day off does not reduce the pay of monthly-paid workers. A worker paid by the day or by the hour is deemed to have worked a normal day, so a holiday is never deducted from a payslip.
• Article 8, day worked: an employee working under article 5(2) or article 6 receives, on top of the pay for the work actually done, an allowance of the same amount. The same article bans overtime on statutory holidays.

The Labour Code (Law n° 92/007 of 14 August 1992) frames the rest without setting a rate specific to public holidays Cameroon 2026: a maximum of forty hours a week in non-agricultural establishments (article 80), weekly rest of at least twenty-four consecutive hours, normally on Sunday and never replaceable by a payment (article 88), and overtime premiums left to implementing decrees. The premium rates quoted online for Sunday or holiday work vary wildly from one site to another: rely on your industry collective agreement.

A worked example

Take a technician in a continuous-process plant paid 180 000 FCFA gross a month for 173.33 hours, about 1 038 FCFA an hour. Off on 20 May, he keeps his 180 000 FCFA. If he works eight hours on 25 December, he receives 8 304 FCFA for those hours plus an equal allowance: 16 608 FCFA on top of his monthly pay. For the net figure, see our guide to net salary calculation in Cameroon.

Muslim holidays: who sets the date in Cameroon

Both follow the Hijri calendar and depend on sighting the crescent moon. In Cameroon the Commission nationale du croissant lunaire (CNCL, the national crescent moon commission) announces it; the Ministry of Territorial Administration has stated that it is the only body entitled to do so. In 2026 the crescent was not sighted, Ramadan ran to thirty days and the feast was held on Friday 20 March; the Central African stock exchange suspended trading that day, “a holiday on which work stops throughout Cameroonian territory”. The Feast of the Sheep followed on 27 May. A one-day gap with Gulf countries remains possible: do not lock your schedules before the announcement.

After public holidays Cameroon 2026, the 2027 dates

Civil holidays keep their fixed dates and Christian holidays follow Easter, on Sunday 28 March 2027. The two Muslim holidays remain provisional.

2027 is less favourable than public holidays Cameroon 2026: Labour Day and Christmas on a Saturday, Assumption on a Sunday. Watch the 1 May trap: article 2 only moves a civil holiday when it falls on a Sunday or on another holiday, not on a Saturday. Nothing is owed for Monday 3 May 2027.

English-speaking regions and common mix-ups

The 1973 law is published in French and in English (article 11) and the list is the same in all ten regions. Three mistakes come back in schedules:

• Easter Monday and Whit Monday are not Cameroonian statutory holidays, despite appearing on international calendars.
• 1 October is not a statutory holiday, whatever its symbolic weight in the North-West and South-West.
• 10 February is not a holiday by nature: it was one in 2025 by presidential order.

Preparing payroll and schedules around public holidays Cameroon 2026

A holiday hits three counters: hours clocked, leave balances and gross monthly pay. The accrual rules — one and a half working days per month of actual service, taken after one year (articles 89 and 92) — are covered in our guide to leave management in Cameroon, and the whole framework in our guide to the Cameroonian Labour Code. Socium’s HR and payroll software for Cameroon carries the statutory holiday calendar, applies the article 8 allowance to hours clocked on a holiday and updates the Muslim dates as soon as the CNCL announces them; see also our page on payroll software in Cameroon and on CNPS social contributions. The 1973 law appears in the legal compendium of the Ministry of Territorial Administration.

Frequently asked questions

What are the public holidays in Cameroon?

Ten statutory holidays: four civil (New Year’s Day, 11 February, 1 May, 20 May) and six religious (Good Friday, Ascension, Assumption, Christmas, end of Ramadan, Feast of the Sheep).

How many public holidays Cameroon 2026 are there?

Ten, nine of them on weekdays. Only Assumption fell on a Saturday, 15 August 2026.

Is 11 February paid in Cameroon?

Yes. It is a civil holiday: the day off is compulsory and article 7 bans any reduction of monthly pay, as for all public holidays Cameroon 2026.

Do people work on 20 May in Cameroon?

No, except in the cases of article 6: domestic staff, services that cannot be interrupted, continuous-process plants. Whoever works receives the day’s pay plus an equal allowance.

Is a worked public holiday paid double in Cameroon?

In practice yes: article 8 adds an allowance equal to the pay for the work actually done. No overtime is allowed on those days.

What happens if a holiday falls on a Sunday?

For a civil holiday, the next day is treated as the holiday. For a religious holiday, a presidential order is needed for the next day to become a holiday on which work is allowed.

What is the next public holiday in Cameroon?

Christmas, Friday 25 December 2026, the last of the public holidays Cameroon 2026. Next comes New Year’s Day, Friday 1 January 2027.

Are the 2027 Muslim dates certain?

No. 9 or 10 March and 16 or 17 May 2027 are astronomical estimates: only the CNCL announcement is authoritative.

Key takeaways

• Ten public holidays Cameroon 2026, nine of them on weekdays.
• Civil holidays: the day off is compulsory. Religious holidays: optional above 18.
• Holiday not worked: no effect on pay. Holiday worked: the day’s pay plus an equal allowance, and no overtime.
• Civil holiday on a Sunday: the next day follows. Religious holiday on a Sunday, or a bridge day around a Friday or Tuesday: only by presidential order.
• In 2027, watch Saturday 1 May, Sunday 15 August and the two Muslim dates.

To apply the statutory holiday calendar and the article 8 allowance across your payroll, book a Socium demo.