DR Congo public holidays 2026
DR Congo has 11 national public holidays in 2026. Take those and the weekends out of the calendar and 255 working days remain.
Holiday list for 2026
| Date | Weekday | Holiday | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Thursday | New Year's Day | Nationwide |
| 4 Jan | Sunday rest day | Martyrs Day | Nationwide |
| 16 Jan | Friday | Laurent-Désiré Kabila Assassination | Nationwide |
| 17 Jan | Saturday rest day | Patrice Lumumba Assassination | Nationwide |
| 6 Apr | Monday | Kimbangu's Day | Nationwide |
| 1 May | Friday | Labour Day | Nationwide |
| 17 May | Sunday rest day | Liberation Day | Nationwide |
| 30 Jun | Tuesday | Independence Day | Nationwide |
| 1 Aug | Saturday rest day | Parents' Day | Nationwide |
| 2 Aug | Sunday rest day | Congolese Genocide Day | Nationwide |
| 25 Dec | Friday | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
2026 at a glance
January 4 holidays
February
March
April 1 holiday
May 2 holidays
June 1 holiday
July
August 2 holidays
September
October
November
December 1 holiday
Working days in each month
| Month | Days | Weekend | Holidays | Working | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 9 | 2 | 20 | 160 |
| February | 28 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 160 |
| March | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| April | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 | 168 |
| July | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 | 184 |
| August | 31 | 10 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| November | 30 | 9 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 1 | 22 | 176 |
| 2026 | 365 | 104 | 6 | 255 | 2,040 |
What the numbers say about DR Congo in 2026
The count uses Saturday and Sunday as the weekly rest days, the standard pattern in DR Congo. 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.
5 holidays land on a rest day this year: Martyrs Day (4 Jan), Patrice Lumumba Assassination (17 Jan), Liberation Day (17 May), Parents' Day (1 Aug), Congolese Genocide Day (2 Aug). 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 20. A gap of 3 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).
Among the 204 countries we track for 2026, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 11, DR Congo sits below the middle of the range, around the 37th 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 16 January to 18 January (Laurent-Désiré Kabila Assassination, Patrice Lumumba Assassination). 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.