A personal holiday calendar for Africa

What you can do

Choose a country and a year, then read the public-holiday list with a plain-language note on what the day is. You can open a leave planner for long weekends, count working days, or generate a wall calendar that already includes the official dates.

The studio lets you change the theme, week start, and layout, add personal dates, and export a print-ready PDF, high-resolution PNG, vector SVG, or calendar file (.ics). Subscribe feeds are published for Kenya and other priority countries so the dates can land on a phone calendar.

Who it is for

Anyone looking for an Africa calendar: households that want a cultural wall calendar, teams that need a shared holiday list, and people planning leave around public holidays in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Egypt, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and the other African countries in the catalogue.

Who operates it

I run Africa Calendar under my own name, Collins Odeny. This is a personal project, not a government office, payroll bureau, or school board, and I do not sell credentials I do not have. Dates come from the public-holiday list this project already uses, plus corrections I keep when a notice moves a day. Confirm the Kenya Gazette and your employer’s policy before you treat a date as final for pay, exams, or travel.

Questions and corrections are welcome at contact@africacalendar.app.

How I check dates

A date on Africa Calendar is not a guess I typed into a spreadsheet the night before a holiday. I start from the open public-holiday list this project already uses. That list names the public holidays for a country and a year. I then apply sourced add, remove, rename, and status corrections I keep with the project so a change is visible, and I apply Sunday-to-Monday labelling where the civil list already shows a generic Monday after a named Sunday.

The studio and the subscribe feeds now use that same corrected list. When I move Tanzania’s Revolution Day from 2 January to 12 January, or rename 26 December to Boxing Day, the /feeds/tz-2026.ics file should show the same dates as the studio. If a path still disagrees, I say so on the country guide rather than pretending the site has one secret list.

Kenya is the country I can check with my own eyes. The Kenya Gazette is the instrument that locks a lunar date or an extra weekday. I look for notices on Kenya Law and on the newer new.kenyalaw.org collections — the Constitution text and the Public Holidays Act live there. When a Cabinet Secretary notice names Eid al-Fitr or Eid al-Adha, I do not overwrite the civil date by habit. I mark the date gazetted and I store the notice URL next to the change. Kenya 2026 Eid al-Fitr on 20 March and Eid al-Adha on 27 May are marked that way, with gazette source URLs dated 18 March 2026 and 25 May 2026. Later Kenyan years stay estimates until a notice appears.

South Africa is a statute country more than a gazette-by-gazette country. The Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994 is the document I open for Sunday Mondays and for the Schedule 1 names. The South African government’s public-holidays material on gov.za is the front door I name even when a particular HTML page is slow to load; the Act PDF I successfully opened for the Heritage Day guide is the Parliament copy. I do not invent a Monday after a Saturday Freedom Day. I only keep a Monday when the Act’s Sunday rule already adds it or this list already shows it. The 19 October 2026 Heritage Day (observed) label on 25 September 2028 is that rule applied to a generic “Public Holiday” Monday, not a new commemoration.

Nigerian federal public holidays are announced in the name of the Federal Ministry of Interior. I name that office because that is the channel this project already treats as the federal front door. The Federal Ministry of Information published the Interior declaration of Wednesday 27 May and Thursday 28 May 2026 for Eid ul Adha; I opened that page. Children’s Day, Islamic New Year, and National Youth Day stay on the Nigeria hubs as observances — visibly labelled, never marked official, and left out of the public-holiday count and the next-public-holiday countdown — because they are not on the Public Holidays Act schedule. State governments can still add a day the federal list omits. Their circulars beat this website.

Ghana, Egypt, Tanzania, and Uganda follow the same method. Ghana now follows the Public Holidays and Commemorative Days (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1142): Republic Day on 1 July, Shaqq Day the day after Eid-ul-Fitr, 4 August removed, and 21 September as Founder’s Day. Tanzania uses the Cap. 35 schedule I opened on TanzLII for 12 January and Boxing Day. Egypt and Uganda currently have no extra corrections of that kind; the dates the studio shows are the dates this list started from, and the country guides say where that disagrees with a Presidency table or a ULII schedule I opened. I will not mark a date gazetted unless I have a notice URL next to the change.

School terms are a separate document. The only circular on this site is the Kenya 2026 basic-education ranges copied onto /kenya/2026/school/. I will not invent a Ghana or Egypt term so a page looks finished. Labour rates, visa rules, and bargaining-council extras are outside that method. If a figure is not on this site and not on a page I can open, I do not print it. Corrections go onto the holiday list first, then into the written guide if the planning story changed. The dated log below is that history in prose, not a marketing timeline.

Corrections log

19 October 2026 — Nigeria observances. Children’s Day, Islamic New Year, and National Youth Day remain on the 2026–2028 Nigeria hubs, but I now label them observances. They are not federal public holidays on the Public Holidays Act schedule or on timeanddate’s Nigeria list. They no longer count as official dates, they are out of the next-public-holiday countdown, and they are omitted from the subscribe feeds. The earlier log line that said those dates were dropped was wrong; they stayed visible and needed a status, not a deletion.

19 October 2026 — Ghana Act 1142. I updated the Ghana list and /feeds/gh-2026.ics to the Public Holidays and Commemorative Days (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1142): Republic Day on 1 July, Shaqq Day the day after Eid-ul-Fitr, 4 August removed, and 21 September renamed Founder’s Day. The Interior declarations for Friday 9 January 2026 and Friday 3 July 2026 stay as observed Constitution Day and observed Republic Day.

19 October 2026 — Tanzania dates. Independence and Republic Day is Wednesday 9 December 2026 and Thursday 9 December 2027, not Wednesday in both years. The studio and /feeds/tz-2026.ics now share the Cap. 35 list: Zanzibar Revolution Day on 12 January and Boxing Day on 26 December.

19 October 2026 — Uganda chapter. The ULII consolidation I opened is dated 31 December 2023 and titled Chapter 174. The same page records the previous revised chapter as Cap. 255 (Revised Edition, 2000).

19 October 2026 — South Africa, 25 September 2028. The public list showed Sunday 24 September 2028 as Heritage Day and Monday 25 September 2028 as a generic “Public Holiday.” I changed the Monday label to “Heritage Day (observed).” The Public Holidays Act Sunday rule is why the Monday exists; the generic name was the error.

19 October 2026 — Ghana 2026 Eid week. Friday 20 March is Eid-Ul-Fitr, Saturday 21 March is Shaqq Day, and Monday 23 March is the additional public holiday because Shaqq Day fell on a Saturday. Wednesday 27 May 2026 is the declared Eid al-Adha weekday.

19 October 2026 — Ghana 2027 and 2028 civil substitutes. Monday 8 March 2027 after Saturday Independence Day, Monday 3 May 2027 after Saturday Labour Day, Monday 3 January 2028 after Saturday New Year’s Day, and Monday 3 July 2028 after Saturday Republic Day are listed as pending an executive instrument. Act 1142 lets the President move those weekend days; it does not confirm the Mondays until Interior publishes the instrument.

19 October 2026 — Tanzania 2026 Id-ul-Fitr. Friday 20 March 2026 is not a public holiday on this list. I looked for an Ikulu, gazette, or ministry declaration of that Friday and did not find one. Saturday 21 March is Id-ul-Fitr, declared after the Mufti of Tanzania announced on 19 March 2026 that the moon had not been sighted. Sunday 22 March is the second day per Cap. 35, unconfirmed: not gazetted, not official, out of the official count and the next-holiday countdown, and marked unconfirmed on /feeds/tz-2026.ics.

19 October 2026 — Tanzania 2026 Eid al-Adha. Wednesday 27 May is declared after BAKWATA announced the date on behalf of the Mufti. I opened the 18 May 2026 announcement on Mwananchi and Timesmajira. I did not find a gazette proclamation.

26 August 2026 — I began keeping a dated corrections list for holiday dates. Kenya Easter Sunday was removed as a public holiday, Kenyan 10 October dates were renamed to Mazingira Day, Kenya 2026 Eid dates were marked gazetted against Kenya Gazette notices, and Tanzania’s Zanzibar Revolution Day was moved from 2 January to 12 January. Nigerian Children’s Day, Islamic New Year, and National Youth Day were later restored as labelled observances rather than dropped.

This log will grow when a notice disagrees with a date here and I change the holiday list. I will not seed it with hypothetical future fixes. If you have an official notice, email contact@africacalendar.app with the country, the year, and the URL or a scan.

Why Kenya holidays and school terms came first

I made the first useful version for my own household: a wall calendar that already knew Kenyan public holidays, plus enough context to plan leave around long weekends. School-term dates matter when you are coordinating travel with children in basic education, so the Kenya 2026 circular is copied on its own page with public holidays shown beside the terms.

Nigeria and South Africa followed because colleagues and friends asked for the same style of notes — what Democracy Day marks, how Freedom Day interacts with a Sunday, and which dates already create a natural three-day weekend.

What “not affiliated with government” means here

Africa Calendar reads public notices and reputable holiday datasets; it does not speak for any ministry, county, or employer. If the Kenya Gazette moves an Eid date, I update the holiday list when I see the notice — but your HR office or school principal still wins if they publish something different.

There is no official endorsement, no API partnership with the Ministry of Education, and no claim that printed output satisfies audit or payroll rules. Treat the site as a planning aid you can verify elsewhere.

Roadmap honesty

Deep written country hubs stay focused on Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Ghana, Egypt, Tanzania, and Uganda now have leave guides; they do not yet have sitemap hubs. The studio catalogue for 50+ countries will keep working even when a country does not yet have a long article for every holiday.

Features I am likely to improve next are better print presets, clearer school-term pages for other years, and more holiday articles where gazette notes are stable. I do not publish fake download counts or promise features on a fixed corporate schedule — this is a nights-and-weekends project.

If you depend on a country that only has studio support today, email me — real user mail decides what gets written next, not a marketing calendar.

Kenya-first, then the rest of Africa

I live in Kenya, so Kenya is where I can cross-check dates against the Kenya Gazette and Ministry of Education circulars with my own eyes. That is why Kenya 2026 has a holiday hub, a school-term page, a leave planner, and a print-studio page.

Nigeria and South Africa have the same style of written holiday notes because colleagues asked for Democracy Day, Independence Day, Freedom Day, and Heritage Day in the same voice. Ghana, Egypt, Tanzania, and Uganda now have leave guides in the series. Ethiopia and the rest of the 50+ catalogue still open in the studio for printing and ICS export even when they do not yet have a long article for every named holiday.

This is a personal project, not a company product line. I do not pretend to have an office in Abuja or Pretoria. When a gazette notice for those countries is easy to verify, I correct the holiday list; when it is not, I say so and point you at the official notice.

Sources, and what this site will not claim

Public-holiday dates come from the open public-holiday list this project already uses, plus manual corrections I keep when a gazette notice moves a date. Kenya 2026 school ranges follow the Ministry of Education circular cited on the school page. ICS feeds under /feeds/ use the same lists.

Africa Calendar is not the Kenya Gazette, not the Ministry of Education, not a payroll bureau, and not a visa or legal desk. A printed wall calendar is a planning aid. Your employer, school, bank, or embassy still wins if they publish a different date.

If a date looks wrong, email contact@africacalendar.app with the country, year, and the notice if you have it. I would rather correct one date than leave a confident error on a page people print and hang on a wall.

Where to start on this site

The useful cluster is small on purpose: the guides index, Kenya 2026 public holidays, the Kenya 2026 school calendar, the Kenya 2026 long-weekend planner, the Kenya 2026 print studio, Nigeria 2026, South Africa 2026, the working-days calculator, then About, Privacy, Terms, and Contact.

Short holiday stubs under /h/ exist so an in-app tap still has a page to land on. They are short notes, not the full holiday lists. Start from a country hub if you want every civil date with notes.

I am Collins Odeny. Thank you for reading this as a maker page rather than a corporate “about us”. The contact page is the right place if you need a human reply.

Useful pages

Start with the planning guides, Kenya 2026 public holidays, the Kenya 2026 school calendar, the Kenya 2026 leave planner, or the Kenya 2026 print studio. Nigeria and South Africa have matching 2026 hubs. Read Privacy, Terms, or Contact if you need a human.