Public holidays Senegal 2026: calendar, dates and pay

Public holidays Senegal 2026 number fourteen statutory holidays: three civil dates (1 January, 4 April, 1 May), six Christian holidays and five Muslim holidays whose dates were set by the Commission nationale de concertation sur le croissant lunaire (CONACOC), the national moon-sighting commission: Korité on Saturday 21 March, Tabaski on Thursday 28 May, Tamkharit on Thursday 25 June, the Grand Magal of Touba on Sunday 2 August and Gamou on Tuesday 25 August. Only one holiday is left this year: Christmas, on Friday 25 December 2026. Updated 12 November 2026.

Four of these holidays are days off with pay under the law, the others days off only. Below are the full calendar, the governing texts, the payroll rules, the Sunday rule and the dates to plan for 2027.

In brief

• 14 statutory holidays in 2026, listed in law n° 74-52 of 4 November 1974, as amended.
• Independence Day (4 April), 1 May, Tamkharit and the Grand Magal of Touba are days off with pay by law; the others are days off.
• The five Muslim holidays are announced by CONACOC after the crescent moon is sighted.
• The Grand Magal fell on a Sunday in 2026: the law provided no replacement Monday.
• An hourly-paid employee who works on a holiday is paid at a 100% premium (article 26 of the national cross-industry collective agreement).
• The Labour Code changed: law n° 2026-18 of 3 September 2026 replaced the 1997 code.

Public holidays Senegal 2026 calendar

Five of the public holidays Senegal 2026 fell on a Saturday or a Sunday: Korité, Independence Day, the Grand Magal, Assumption and All Saints’ Day. The real count of weekday closures is therefore nine, three of them in May alone.

The texts behind public holidays Senegal 2026

The list is not in the Labour Code but in law n° 74-52 of 4 November 1974 on the national day and statutory holidays. Article 1 sets the national day on 4 April. Article 2 lists the statutory holidays: 1 January, 1 May, Mawloud, Korité, Tabaski, Easter Monday, Ascension Thursday, Whit Monday, 15 August, All Saints’ Day and 25 December. Article 3 states that statutory holidays are days off, article 4 that the national day and 1 May are days off with pay, and article 5 refers the details to a decree.

Two later laws completed the text. Law n° 83-54 of 18 February 1983 added 1 February, the Senegambia Confederation day, which is no longer observed. More importantly, law n° 2013-06 of 11 December 2013, published in the Journal officiel n° 6762 of 12 December 2013, added Tamkharit and the Grand Magal of Touba to the list and placed them, alongside the national day and 1 May, among the days off with pay.

What the new Labour Code says

Law n° 2026-18 of 3 September 2026 enacting the Labour Code, published in the Journal officiel n° 7931 of 17 September 2026, repealed law n° 97-17 of 1 December 1997 (article 462). It does not list the holidays but frames public holidays Senegal 2026: article 3 defines a public holiday as a rest day treated by law as a religious or civil feast, and excludes holidays taken off from working days. Article 241 keeps statutory working time at 40 hours a week, article 244 refers premium rates for overtime worked on holidays to a decree or to the collective agreement, and article 246 sets weekly rest at 24 consecutive hours, in principle on Sunday. One practical consequence: leave accrues in working days (article 249), so a holiday taken off during annual leave does not consume a leave day.

Day off, or day off with pay?

This distinction drives payroll. Four holidays are days off with pay by law: 4 April, 1 May, Tamkharit and the Grand Magal of Touba. The other ten are days off only. Article 26 of the national cross-industry collective agreement closes the gap: every year, eight further holidays are days off with pay on the same terms as 1 May, unless they fall on a Sunday. Six of them are chosen in each company by agreement between management and the staff delegates; the seventh and eighth are left to the employer. That agreement is best settled in January.

Religious public holidays Senegal 2026: CONACOC sets the dates

Korité, Tabaski, Tamkharit, the Grand Magal and Gamou follow the Hijri calendar, which is about ten days shorter than the Gregorian year. Their date depends on the sighting of the crescent moon, centralised by CONACOC, which relies on correspondents across the fourteen regions and announces the date the day before the feast. Other bodies, such as the Coordination des musulmans du Sénégal, sometimes keep a different date: in 2026 some worshippers celebrated Korité on Friday 20 March and Tabaski on Wednesday 27 May, one day before the official date. Employers should expect absences the day before the official day off.

When a holiday falls on a Sunday

Article 2 of the 1974 law provides for a single replacement day: when Korité and Tabaski fall on a Sunday, the following Monday is a holiday. No other feast carries a replacement day. The 2026 Grand Magal made the point: falling on Sunday 2 August, it was not followed by a Monday off, hence a private member’s bill tabled in the National Assembly in August 2026 to create that replacement day. Only a presidential decree can create an exceptional day off, as happened the day after the Magal in 2021. Without a published decree, the day after a feast remains a working day: do not build a schedule on a rumour.

Public holidays Senegal 2026: how a holiday is paid

Since the Labour Code refers the matter to collective agreements, article 26 of the national cross-industry collective agreement gives the usual private-sector rule.

• Day off: pay for a holiday off with pay follows the rules applying to 1 May. A monthly-paid employee suffers no deduction.
• Eligibility: apart from 4 April and 1 May, the employee must have at least six consecutive working days of service, that is 40 hours, and must have worked the working day before and the working day after the holiday, save for authorised exceptional absence.
• Monthly-paid staff who work: hours worked on the holiday, up to 40 hours, are made up hour for hour on the following days by agreement with the employer. Failing that, they are paid at the normal rate on top of the usual monthly salary.
• Hourly-paid staff: the same hours are paid at a 100% premium.
• Overtime on a holiday (article 49): a 60% premium on the daytime hourly rate, 100% at night. For reference, ordinary overtime carries 15% for the first eight hours, then 40%, and 60% at night.
• Make-up hours: the employer may recover holidays taken off under the rules on making up hours lost collectively.

Two worked examples

As an illustration, take a small company in Dakar. Its accountant is monthly-paid: Friday 25 December 2026 is a day off and the monthly salary does not change. If he comes in for eight hours, those hours are given back hour for hour or, without an agreement, paid at the normal rate on top of his salary. Its security guard is hourly-paid: on an illustrative basis of 1,000 FCFA an hour, eight hours worked on 25 December come to 8 × 1,000 = 8,000 FCFA, with a 100% premium, that is 16,000 FCFA. The gross-to-net step is covered in our guide to net salary calculation in Senegal.

Public holidays in Senegal in 2027: dates to plan

The civil and Christian dates for 2027 are already certain. The Muslim holidays remain forecasts until CONACOC announces them: allow a one-day margin.

Two things to watch compared with public holidays Senegal 2026. Forecasts differ by one day for Korité (9 or 10 March), Tabaski (16 or 17 May) and the Grand Magal (22 or 23 July). And if Tabaski is set for Monday 17 May, it will coincide with Whit Monday: two statutory holidays, one day off.

Preparing payroll around public holidays Senegal 2026

A public holiday affects the count of paid days, overtime and leave. The counting rules are in our leave management in Senegal guide, and the deductions in our social contributions in Senegal guide. Socium’s payroll software for Senegal carries the statutory holiday calendar, separates days off from paid days, applies the article 26 premiums to hours clocked on a holiday and updates the Muslim holidays as soon as CONACOC announces them. For payslip content, see our Senegal payslip guide; for the wider framework, our guide to the 2026 Senegalese Labour Code.

Frequently asked questions

What are the public holidays in Senegal?

Public holidays Senegal 2026 number fourteen: 1 January, Korité, 4 April, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension, Whit Monday, Tabaski, Tamkharit, the Grand Magal of Touba, 15 August, Gamou, All Saints’ Day and 25 December.

How many public holidays Senegal 2026 are there?

Fourteen, five of which fell on a Saturday or a Sunday. Only nine were weekday closures.

Is the Magal a public holiday in Senegal?

Yes. The Grand Magal of Touba has been a statutory holiday off with pay since law n° 2013-06 of 11 December 2013. In 2026 it fell on Sunday 2 August.

Are public holidays paid in Senegal?

Independence Day, 1 May, Tamkharit and the Grand Magal are days off with pay by law. For the rest, the national cross-industry collective agreement makes eight days paid each year, chosen within the company.

How much is an employee paid for working on a holiday?

An hourly-paid employee receives a 100% premium on those hours. A monthly-paid employee makes the hours up hour for hour or, failing an agreement, is paid at the normal rate on top of salary.

What happens if a holiday falls on a Sunday in Senegal?

Only Korité and Tabaski give a right to the following Monday. For the other feasts there is no carry-over and no replacement day, unless a presidential decree says otherwise.

Is the day after Korité or Tabaski a holiday?

No, unless the feast falls on a Sunday or a decree provides for it. In 2026 no day after a feast was declared a day off.

What are the public holidays in Senegal in 2027?

The same fourteen feasts as in 2026: the civil and Christian dates are certain, from Friday 1 January to Saturday 25 December 2027; the five Muslim holidays remain forecasts until CONACOC announces them.

Key takeaways

• Public holidays Senegal 2026: fourteen statutory holidays, five of them on a weekend.
• Last holiday of the year: Christmas, on Friday 25 December 2026.
• Days off with pay by law: 4 April, 1 May, Tamkharit and the Grand Magal; eight more become paid through the collective agreement.
• Holiday worked: a 100% premium for hourly-paid staff, hour-for-hour make-up for monthly-paid staff.
• No carry-over when a feast falls on a Sunday, except for Korité and Tabaski.
• In 2027 the Grand Magal is expected on Friday 23 July and Independence Day falls on a Sunday.

Public holidays Senegal 2026 end with Christmas, and the 2027 calendar is worth preparing now. To apply it, premiums included, across your whole payroll, book a Socium demo.