Democratic Republic of the Congo public holidays

What this value means

STATUTORY LIST (Art. 1er, verbatim): 1er janvier Nouvel an; 4 janvier Journée des Martyrs de l'indépendance; 16 janvier Journée du héros national Laurent Désiré Kabila; 17 janvier Journée du héros national Patrice Emery Lumumba; 6 avril Journée du combat de Simon Kimbangu et de la conscience africaine; 1er mai Fête du travail; 17 mai Journée des Forces armées; 30 juin Journée de l'indépendance; 1er août Fête des parents; 25 décembre Noël. Ten days, all fixed-date — the DRC recognises no moveable Christian or Islamic feasts as legal holidays, so there is no Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension or Eid in the list. Art. 3 abrogates Ordonnance 14-010 du 14 mai 2014; Art. 4 makes the ordonnance effective on signature (30 March 2023). CORRECTION TO THE BRIEF: 17 May is the 'Journée des Forces armées' in the ordonnance (commonly also called the Journée de la Révolution / anniversary of the AFDL's entry into Kinshasa), not 'Liberation Day'; and 6 April (Simon Kimbangu) is a legal holiday the brief did not list. THE SUNDAY RULE AND WHY THE SERVED DATES DIVERGE FROM IT: Art. 2 reads « Dans le cas où l'un des jours fériés légaux visés à l'article 1er coïncide avec un dimanche, le congé relatif à ce jour est pris le jour précédent » — i.e. BACKWARD, to the Saturday. It says nothing about Saturdays. In practice in 2026 the Ministère de l'Emploi et Travail did the opposite: 4 January (Sunday) was observed on Monday 5 January, 17 May (Sunday) on Monday 18 May, and 17 January — a SATURDAY, a case the ordonnance does not cover at all — on Monday 19 January, so that 16 and 19 January were declared chômés et payés. On 4 January the ministry first issued communiqué n° 010 moving the holiday BACK to Saturday 3 January in literal compliance with Art. 2, then replaced it with communiqué n° 011 moving it FORWARD to Monday 5 January; Congolese practitioners publicly criticised the reversal as an erreur de droit (Me Dan Idima Nkanda, 5 Jan 2026). This file serves the ministry's OBSERVED dates, because those are the days on which the country actually stops working — a strict application of Art. 2 would instead give 2026-01-03 and 2026-05-16 and leave 17 January on the Saturday. DO NOT SERVE AS FACT: 1 August 2026 (Fête des parents) falls on a Saturday and no ministerial communiqué had been issued as at 24 July 2026. If the ministry repeats its January precedent it will be observed on Monday 3 August, but that is an inference, not an announcement — the statutory date is served above until a communiqué issues. Each holiday is separately proclaimed 'férié, chômé et payé' by a communiqué of the Minister of Employment and Labour, applying to public administration, schools, and public and private enterprises; the ministry's own channel is @MinEmploiTraRDC. A 2026 commentary questions whether fixing holidays by presidential ordonnance is compatible with the 2006 Constitution (arguably a matter reserved to the legislature); the ordonnance is nonetheless the instrument in force and the one the ministry cites. 2027 NOT SERVED — HELD (2026-07-30), for observance only. The statutory list above is complete and unchanged: Ordonnance n° 23-042 du 30 mars 2023 remains in force and its ten fixed dates are known for 2027 as for 2026. What cannot be resolved in advance is which day each holiday is actually taken. As set out above, Article 2 moves a Sunday holiday BACKWARD to the preceding day while the Ministère de l'Emploi et Travail has repeatedly moved such days FORWARD to the Monday by communiqué — it even issued and then replaced a communiqué on 4 January 2026 to do so. In 2027 that conflict arises twice, on 17 January and 1 August, and 17 January creates a further problem the ordonnance does not address: moving Lumumba Day backward from Sunday 17 January would land on Saturday 16 January, which is already the Kabila Day holiday. Because this series serves the days on which the country actually stops working rather than a literal reading the ministry does not follow, and because we will not invent a ministerial decision, 2027 is held until the ministry's communiqués are issued, expected late 2026. NOTE FOR REVIEWERS: an automated review on 2026-07-30 reported that this series was missing 6 April and carried a non-statutory 18 May. Both reports were mistaken — 6 April is present, and the 18 May entry is expressly labelled as the ministry's observed Monday with the statutory date of 17 May named in the same entry and quoted in the list above.

Get it programmatically

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

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