Burkina Faso public holidays

What this value means

2026 IS A DISCONTINUITY YEAR - do not carry forward any pre-2026 Burkinabe holiday list. On 9 January 2026 the Assemblee legislative de transition adopted loi n.001-2026/ALT, which repealed loi n.079-2015/CNT and cut paid public holidays from 15 to 11, reclassifying the rest as 'journees de commemoration et de reflexion' that are observed WITHOUT interruption of work. The government costed the reform at about 16.9 billion XOF recovered annually. The 11 retained paid days are exactly those listed above: six fixed civil/Christian dates (1 Jan, 8 Mar, 1 May, 15 May, 11 Dec, 25 Dec), two movable Christian feasts (Ascension, Assumption) and three movable Islamic feasts (Ramadan/Aid el-Fitr, Tabaski, Mouloud). DELIBERATE EXCLUSIONS - now commemoration days, NOT days off: 3 January (Soulevement populaire de 1966), 4 August (Avenement de la Revolution 1983), 5 August (Proclamation de l'Independance 1960), 15 October (Journee Thomas Sankara), 31 October (Journee des Martyrs / insurrection de 2014) and 1 November (Journee de l'Armee / Toussaint). Also absent from the new statutory list, and therefore excluded here, are Lundi de Paques (Easter Monday) and Lundi de Pentecote (Whit Monday), which the 2015 law had carried. SUBSTITUTION RULE, APPLIED: the new law abolishes the former rule under which the day following a legal holiday falling on a Sunday was itself declared chome - 'le lendemain d'une fete legale qui tombe un dimanche n'est plus declare chome'. Consequently 8 March 2026 falls on a Sunday and generates NO Monday 9 March substitute day, and 15 August 2026 falls on a Saturday with no substitute. No substitution has been applied anywhere in this list. Weekday check for 2026: 1 Jan Thu, 8 Mar Sun, 20 Mar Fri, 1 May Fri, 14 May Thu, 15 May Fri, 27 May Wed, 15 Aug Sat, 25 Aug Tue, 11 Dec Fri, 25 Dec Fri. MOVABLE-DATE PROVENANCE, differentiated by confidence: Ascension 14 May 2026 is computed from Easter Sunday 5 April 2026 (Easter + 39 days) and is certain. Aid el-Fitr 20 March 2026 is CONFIRMED - the government declared Friday 20 March 2026 chome et paye. Tabaski 27 May 2026 is CONFIRMED - the Federation des Associations Islamiques du Burkina (FAIB) announced by communique of 17 May 2026 that Aid el-Kebir would be celebrated Wednesday 27 May 2026, with the standing at Arafat on 26 May. Mouloud 25 August 2026 is NOT YET CONFIRMED at last_confirmed date - it is the astronomically expected 12 Rabi al-Awwal 1448 and had not been fixed by FAIB communique as of 20 July 2026; Burkinabe Islamic dates are set by local moon sighting and can shift by a day, so re-verify before the date. Access note: primary text of loi n.001-2026/ALT is not posted as a downloadable PDF on an.bf; the list, the repealed instrument and the abolished Sunday-substitution rule were taken from the Assemblee's own explanatory page and corroborated against the state news agency AIB. Security/publication context: Burkina Faso is under transitional military government and official gazette publication can lag; ad hoc decrees declaring additional one-off chome et paye days (as happened for 31 October 2025) are possible and would not appear in this statutory list.

Get it programmatically

curl https://afriref.dev/v1/bf/public-holidays
# Free.
# History:    curl https://afriref.dev/v1/bf/public-holidays/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/bf/public-holidays

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