Planning leave around Tanzanian public holidays

By Collins Odeny. Last updated: 19 October 2026.

Cap. 35 as TanzLII prints it

I opened the TanzLII consolidation of the Public Holidays Act, Chapter 35, marked 31 December 2023. Section 2 says the Schedule days shall be observed as public holidays every year. Section 3 lets the President, by proclamation, add or substitute a day. Section 4, in the text I opened, is about a department head opening offices and calling staff to work on a public holiday. It is not a Saturday-to-Monday substitute rule.

The Schedule on that TanzLII page is New Year’s Day 1 January; Revolution Day 12 January; Id-ul-Fitr two days; Good Friday; Easter Monday; Id-el-Haj one day; Union Day 26 April; International Workers’ Day 1 May; Maulidi Day; Peasants’ Day 8 August; Mwalimu Nyerere Day and the Climax of the Uhuru Torch Race 14 October; Independence and Republic Day 9 December; Christmas Day 25 December; Boxing Day 26 December.

I also opened a PDF of the same Act hosted at nps.go.tz, the National Prosecutions Service (Ofisi ya Taifa ya Mashtaka) — not Tanzania National Parks and not a National Police Service. The statutory text I am using is the TanzLII consolidation. Cap. 35 as printed there has no weekend-substitute rule; if a proclamation later adds one, section 3 is how it would appear.

Revolution Day is 12 January in the Act, not 2 January

The open holiday list this project started from listed “Zanzibar Revolution Day” on 2 January. That is the wrong civil date relative to the Schedule I opened. I therefore remove the 2 January Zanzibar date, add Zanzibar Revolution Day on 12 January, and rename 26 December from a second “Christmas Day” to Boxing Day.

The studio and the subscribe feed now share that Cap. 35 list. /feeds/tz-2026.ics should show 12 January and Boxing Day on 26 December. If you still see 2 January on an old downloaded file, delete it and subscribe again.

The Act’s name is Revolution Day, 12 January. English usage often says Zanzibar Revolution Day. I keep the longer name on this site so a Dar es Salaam timesheet and a Zanzibar timesheet can find the same row. I am not writing a political history of 1964 beyond the statutory date.

Union Day, Nyerere Day, and Independence and Republic Day

Union Day is 26 April every year — the 1964 union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in the Schedule’s naming. In 2026 it is a Sunday. In 2027 it is a Monday. In 2028 it is a Wednesday. Cap. 35 as I opened it does not add a Monday after a Sunday Union Day. This site’s Tanzania list does not invent one either.

Nyerere Day is 14 October, “The Mwalimu Nyerere Day and the Climax of the Uhuru Torch Race” in the Schedule. In 2026 it is a Wednesday. In 2027 it is a Thursday. In 2028 it is a Saturday. A Saturday Nyerere Day is a weekend close on this site’s Saturday–Sunday rest, not a Monday I will fabricate.

Independence and Republic Day is 9 December. In 2026 it is a Wednesday. In 2027 it is a Thursday. In 2028 it is a Saturday. Again, no substitute Monday appears on this list. The Kenya leave-planning guide is the wrong template for those Sundays and Saturdays.

Days this site shows that the Schedule I opened does not

This site’s Tanzania list includes Karume Day on 7 April and Saba Saba Day on 7 July. Neither name appears in the Cap. 35 Schedule I opened. Peasants’ Day on 8 August does appear; the English name on this list is Nane Nane Day, the same 8 August. I keep the Nane Nane label in the studio and I tell you the Act says Peasants’ Day.

Karume Day and Saba Saba Day may be proclaimed under section 3, or they may be customary dates this list still carries. I did not open a 2026 proclamation for either, so I will not upgrade them to “Schedule days.” If your workplace closes on 7 April or 7 July, treat this list as a hint and ask for the notice.

Id-ul-Fitr is “two days” in the Act. For 2026 I list Saturday 21 March as Id-ul-Fitr, declared after the Mufti announcement, and Sunday 22 March as the second day per Cap. 35, unconfirmed. On 19 March 2026 the Mufti of Tanzania, Abubakar Zubeir, announced that the moon had not been sighted, so Eid would be Saturday 21 March. I opened that announcement on Global Publishers and BBC Swahili. I looked for an Ikulu, gazette, or ministry declaration of Friday 20 March 2026 as a public holiday and did not find one. I opened the 20 March 2026 Gazette No. 12 on the Attorney General site; it is land titles, probate, and deed polls, not an Eid proclamation. Friday 20 March 2026 is not a public holiday on this list. Sunday 22 March is not gazetted and is not official; Cap. 35 names two Fitr days, so I show that Sunday with the unconfirmed label and I leave it out of the official count and the next-holiday countdown. Later years stay estimates: 9 and 10 March 2027, and 26 and 27 February 2028. Id-el-Haj is “one day” in the Act. For 2026 I list Wednesday 27 May as 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. Later Haj dates stay estimates: 16 May 2027 and 5 May 2028. A later proclamation can still move those later weekdays.

Easter, Workers’ Day, and the December pair

Good Friday and Easter Monday appear in the Act and on this list: 3 and 6 April 2026, 26 and 29 March 2027, 14 and 17 April 2028. Tanzania does not give the Monday a second civil name the way South Africa’s Family Day does.

International Workers’ Day is 1 May. In 2026 it is a Friday. In 2027 it is a Saturday. In 2028 it is a Monday. No substitute Monday appears after Saturday 1 May 2027 on this Tanzania list. Do not import Nigeria’s 2027 Workers’ Day Monday by habit.

Christmas Day and Boxing Day are 25 and 26 December. The open list this project started from named both 2026 December dates “Christmas Day” until this site renamed the 26th. If you still see two Christmases, you are on an old downloaded file. The Act’s names are Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Mainland, Zanzibar, and the office I am not in

Revolution Day is a union public holiday on the Schedule, even though the event it names is Zanzibari. I will not tell you that every mainland office treats 12 January the same way every Zanzibar office does. Section 4 of the Act I opened even lets a department head call people in.

I live in Kenya. I do not sit in Dodoma or Unguja. When a presidential proclamation adds Karume Day or a second Idd day, that proclamation beats this website.

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

How I would sequence a Tanzania leave conversation

Write the Schedule dates first: 12 January, 26 April, 1 May, 8 August, 14 October, 9 December, plus Easter and the December pair. Then ask whether the workplace also closes for Karume Day and Saba Saba. Then ask which document has the Idd days this year.

In 2026, Friday Workers’ Day and the Easter four-day close are the free long weekends you do not have to buy. Sunday Union Day is a ceremony date, not a lost weekday. In 2027, Monday Union Day is the free April weekend. In 2028, Monday Workers’ Day is the free May weekend and Saturday Nyerere Day is not.

Print from the studio after picking Tanzania. Subscribe at /feeds/tz-2026.ics and, if 12 January is wrong on the feed, say so in mail. Tanzania is in the catalogue and the feeds. It is not in the sitemap as a /tanzania/2026/ hub. Email contact@africacalendar.app with a proclamation if you have one.

Cap. 35 as I opened it on TanzLII is the paper I would put on the table before anyone books a bus for 12 January. If the workplace also uses a later proclamation, put that paper next to the Schedule rather than next to this website.

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