Benin public holidays 2026
Benin has 14 national public holidays in 2026. Take those and the weekends out of the calendar and 253 working days remain.
Holiday list for 2026
| Date | Weekday | Holiday | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Thursday | New Year's Day | Nationwide |
| 10 Jan | Saturday rest day | Traditional Day | Nationwide |
| 5 Apr | Sunday rest day | Easter Sunday | Nationwide |
| 6 Apr | Monday | Easter Monday | Nationwide |
| 1 May | Friday | Labour Day | Nationwide |
| 14 May | Thursday | Ascension Day | Nationwide |
| 25 May | Monday | Whit Monday | Nationwide |
| 1 Aug | Saturday rest day | Independence Day | Nationwide |
| 15 Aug | Saturday rest day | Assumption Day | Nationwide |
| 26 Oct | Monday | Armed Forces Day | Nationwide |
| 1 Nov | Sunday rest day | All Saints' Day | Nationwide |
| 30 Nov | Monday | National Day | Nationwide |
| 25 Dec | Friday | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
| 26 Dec | Saturday rest day | St. Stephen's Day
Boxing Day |
Nationwide |
2026 at a glance
January 2 holidays
February
March
April 2 holidays
May 3 holidays
June
July
August 2 holidays
September
October 1 holiday
November 2 holidays
December 2 holidays
Working days in each month
| Month | Days | Weekend | Holidays | Working | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 9 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| February | 28 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 160 |
| March | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| April | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 3 | 18 | 144 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| July | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 | 184 |
| August | 31 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| November | 30 | 9 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 1 | 22 | 176 |
| 2026 | 365 | 104 | 8 | 253 | 2,024 |
What the numbers say about Benin in 2026
The count uses Saturday and Sunday as the weekly rest days, the standard pattern in Benin. Only holidays that apply across the whole country are deducted. Someone working in a region with its own extra days will have a little more time off than these figures show.
6 holidays land on a rest day this year: Traditional Day (10 Jan), Easter Sunday (5 Apr), Independence Day (1 Aug), Assumption Day (15 Aug), All Saints' Day (1 Nov), St. Stephen's Day (26 Dec). On the calendar alone that means no extra time off. Some countries move the day off to the next working day; whether that applies here is set by national rules, so check before you plan around it.
July is the longest working month with 23 days, and May the shortest with 18. A gap of 5 days is enough to make a fixed monthly target noticeably harder in some months than in others. Across quarters, Q2 is the leanest at 61 working days (April, May, June).
Among the 204 countries we track for 2026, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 14, Benin sits above the middle of the range, around the 74th percentile (the lowest count this year is 3, the highest 49).
Holidays create 6 stretches of three or more days off in a row. The longest lasts 3 days, from 4 April to 6 April (Easter Sunday, Easter Monday). There are also 2 bridge days: a single working day squeezed between a holiday and the weekend, where one day of leave turns into four or more days away. See every long weekend in 2026.