Benin public holidays 2027
Benin has 14 national public holidays in 2027. Take those and the weekends out of the calendar and 254 working days remain.
Holiday list for 2027
| Date | Weekday | Holiday | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Friday | New Year's Day | Nationwide |
| 10 Jan | Sunday rest day | Traditional Day | Nationwide |
| 28 Mar | Sunday rest day | Easter Sunday | Nationwide |
| 29 Mar | Monday | Easter Monday | Nationwide |
| 1 May | Saturday rest day | Labour Day | Nationwide |
| 6 May | Thursday | Ascension Day | Nationwide |
| 17 May | Monday | Whit Monday | Nationwide |
| 1 Aug | Sunday rest day | Independence Day | Nationwide |
| 15 Aug | Sunday rest day | Assumption Day | Nationwide |
| 26 Oct | Tuesday | Armed Forces Day | Nationwide |
| 1 Nov | Monday | All Saints' Day | Nationwide |
| 30 Nov | Tuesday | National Day | Nationwide |
| 25 Dec | Saturday rest day | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
| 26 Dec | Sunday rest day | St. Stephen's Day
Boxing Day |
Nationwide |
2027 at a glance
January 2 holidays
February
March 2 holidays
April
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 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| February | 28 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 160 |
| March | 31 | 8 | 1 | 22 | 176 |
| April | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 2 | 19 | 152 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| July | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| August | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| October | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| November | 30 | 8 | 2 | 20 | 160 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 | 184 |
| 2027 | 365 | 104 | 7 | 254 | 2,032 |
What the numbers say about Benin in 2027
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.
7 holidays land on a rest day this year: Traditional Day (10 Jan), Easter Sunday (28 Mar), Labour Day (1 May), Independence Day (1 Aug), Assumption Day (15 Aug), Christmas Day (25 Dec), 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.
December is the longest working month with 23 days, and May the shortest with 19. A gap of 4 days is enough to make a fixed monthly target noticeably harder in some months than in others. Across quarters, Q1 is the leanest at 62 working days (January, February, March).
2026 had 253working days, so 2027gives you 1 more working day.Plans copied over from last year without adjusting for that difference will be slightly off from January onwards.
Among the 204 countries we track for 2027, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 14, Benin sits above the middle of the range, around the 75th percentile (the lowest count this year is 3, the highest 49).
Holidays create 4 stretches of three or more days off in a row. The longest lasts 3 days, from 1 January to 3 January (New Year's Day). There are also 3 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 2027.
4 holidays change date compared with 2026: Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday. Movable dates are the ones most often missed when last year's schedule is reused.