Planning leave around Egyptian official holidays

By Collins Odeny. Last updated: 19 October 2026.

The Presidency’s 2026 table, as I opened it

I opened the Presidency page العطلات الرسمية لعام ٢٠٢٦. It lists Coptic Christmas on Wednesday 7 January; 25 January Revolution and Police Day on Thursday 29 January; Eid al-Fitr from Thursday 19 March through Monday 23 March; Sham El-Nessim on Monday 13 April; Sinai Liberation Day on Saturday 25 April 1982’s anniversary; Labour Day on Thursday 7 May; the Day of Arafat on Tuesday 26 May and Eid al-Adha from Wednesday 27 May through Sunday 31 May; Islamic New Year on Thursday 18 June; 30 June Revolution on Thursday 2 July; 23 July 1952 Revolution on Thursday 23 July; the Prophet’s Birthday on Thursday 27 August; and Armed Forces Day on Tuesday 6 October 1973’s anniversary.

That table is a year-specific official close list. Several mid-week commemorations are taken on a neighbouring Thursday. Labour Day is not Friday 1 May on that page. 25 January is not Sunday 25 January. Armed Forces Day is Tuesday 6 October on that page, which happens to match the civil date.

I did not successfully open a Prime Minister PDF for each of those Thursday moves. I am citing the Presidency HTML I opened, not a secondary payroll blog.

What this site’s Egypt list still prints

The date-holidays public list this project ships for Egypt 2026 is Coptic Christmas on 7 January, National Police Day and Revolution Day 2011 both on 25 January, estimated Eid al-Fitr on 20 March, Sham El Nessim on 13 April, Sinai Liberation Day on 25 April, Labour Day on 1 May, estimated Eid al-Adha on 27 May, estimated Islamic New Year on 16 June, 30 June Day on 30 June, Revolution Day on 23 July, Mawlid on 25 August, and Armed Forces Day on 6 October.

Those are civil commemorative dates. They are useful for knowing what the day marks. They are the wrong document if you need the Thursday the Presidency actually closed in 2026. I will not silently overwrite 1 May with 7 May on this site’s Egypt list, and this site does not yet carry an Egypt 2026 correction of that kind.

2027 and 2028 on this site’s Egypt list keep the civil dates: 25 January, 1 May, 30 June, 23 July, 6 October, plus moving Sham El-Nessim, Eid, and Mawlid dates. Treat later years as planning smoke until a Presidency table for that year appears.

Friday and Saturday are the rest days this site uses for Egypt

This site treats Egypt as a Friday–Saturday weekend, with Sunday through Thursday as the working week, alongside Algeria, Libya, Sudan, and Iran. That is the product rule used by the working-days calculator and the leave planner. I did not successfully reopen an official work-hours page for this guide, so I am describing the rule the calculators use, not hanging a government URL on the weekend itself.

A Friday public holiday in Egypt therefore lands on a rest day in this site’s arithmetic. Labour Day on Friday 1 May 2026 does not remove a Sunday–Thursday weekday on the calculator, even though the Presidency table closed Thursday 7 May instead. If you follow the Presidency table, Thursday 7 May is the weekday loss. If you follow this site’s date, Friday 1 May is not.

Sunday 25 January 2026 is a working weekday under a Friday–Saturday rest. I list Revolution Day and Police Day on that Sunday. The Presidency table takes Thursday 29 January. Those are different lost weekdays. Publish which document your team is using before anyone books a Red Sea bus.

Fixed commemorations that do not move on this site’s list

Coptic Christmas on 7 January is Wednesday in 2026, Thursday in 2027, and Friday in 2028. On this site’s Egypt weekend, Friday 7 January 2028 is a rest day. Wednesday 7 January 2026 is a working weekday.

Sinai Liberation Day is 25 April every year. In 2026 it is a Saturday — already a rest day here. In 2027 it is a Sunday, a working weekday under a Friday–Saturday rest. In 2028 it is a Tuesday. The 1982 commemoration does not care about your timesheet. Your timesheet has to care about the weekday.

23 July is Thursday in 2026, Friday in 2027 (a rest day here), and Sunday in 2028 (a working weekday here). 6 October is Tuesday in 2026, Wednesday in 2027, and Friday in 2028. A “we always travel after Armed Forces Day” habit fails in 2028 if you thought Friday was still a workday.

Lunar holidays, Sham El-Nessim, and the length of an Eid close

The Presidency 2026 table gives Eid al-Fitr five days (19–23 March) and Eid al-Adha a combined Arafat-plus-feast window (26–31 May). I list each Eid as a single public holiday on the calendar. I will not expand those single dates into a five-day official close without a sourced correction. If your workplace follows the Presidency table, the close is longer than this site’s list.

Sham El-Nessim is the Coptic spring festival I place on 13 April 2026, 3 May 2027, and 17 April 2028. The 2026 Presidency table matches 13 April. 2027’s date on this list sits two days after Labour Day; do not merge them into one week without looking.

Islamic New Year and Mawlid on this site’s Egypt list are estimates. The Presidency 2026 table gives Thursday 18 June and Thursday 27 August. This list gives 16 June and 25 August. That two-day drift is why I refuse to lock a Cairo payroll file to an astronomical guess.

Private sector, public sector, and the rate I will not quote

Government tables and private-sector labour decrees are not always the same document in Egypt. I opened a Labour Law PDF in this research pass; I am not going to quote an article number I cannot cleanly tie to a holiday list without over-claiming. The Presidency table is the official 2026 close list I will cite. Your labour directorate circular is the private-sector document I do not host.

Africa Calendar is not the Egyptian Cabinet and not a Cairo payroll bureau. I live in Kenya. When the two documents disagree, I show both facts and I do not pick a winner for your HR file.

The payroll guide explains rest days versus observed weekdays. In Egypt on this site, Friday and Saturday are rest days. A Thursday close taken instead of a Friday commemoration is an observed weekday. Keep the labels.

How I would sequence an Egypt leave conversation

Ask which document the team is following: the Presidency year table, or this site’s civil list. If the answer is “the app,” use the Egypt dates the studio shows and know that 2026 Labour Day and 25 January may not match the Thursday the state took. If the answer is “the Presidency page,” copy those dates by hand until this site carries an Egypt correction of that kind.

There is no Egyptian school-term circular on this site. I will not invent one. Read your school’s letter the way the school-terms guide describes.

Print from the studio after picking Egypt. Subscribe at /feeds/eg-2026.ics. Egypt is in the catalogue and the feeds. It is not in the sitemap as an /egypt/2026/ hub. Email contact@africacalendar.app if you have a Presidency or labour notice that should become a correction on this list.

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