Zambia public holidays 2026
Zambia has 16 national public holidays in 2026. Take those and the weekends out of the calendar and 247 working days remain.
Holiday list for 2026
| Date | Weekday | Holiday | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Thursday | New Year's Day | Nationwide |
| 9 Mar | Monday | International Women's Day | Nationwide |
| 12 Mar | Thursday | Youth Day | Nationwide |
| 3 Apr | Friday | Good Friday | Nationwide |
| 4 Apr | Saturday rest day | Holy Saturday
Easter Saturday |
Nationwide |
| 5 Apr | Sunday rest day | Easter Sunday | Nationwide |
| 6 Apr | Monday | Easter Monday | Nationwide |
| 28 Apr | Tuesday | Kenneth Kaunda's Birthday | Nationwide |
| 1 May | Friday | Labour Day | Nationwide |
| 25 May | Monday | African Freedom Day
Africa Freedom Day |
Nationwide |
| 6 Jul | Monday | Heroes' Day | Nationwide |
| 7 Jul | Tuesday | Unity Day | Nationwide |
| 3 Aug | Monday | Farmers' Day | Nationwide |
| 19 Oct | Monday | National Day of Prayer | Nationwide |
| 26 Oct | Monday | Independence Day | Nationwide |
| 25 Dec | Friday | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
2026 at a glance
January 1 holiday
February
March 2 holidays
April 5 holidays
May 2 holidays
June
July 2 holidays
August 1 holiday
September
October 2 holidays
November
December 1 holiday
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 | 2 | 20 | 160 |
| April | 30 | 8 | 3 | 19 | 152 |
| May | 31 | 10 | 2 | 19 | 152 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| July | 31 | 8 | 2 | 21 | 168 |
| August | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 | 160 |
| September | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 176 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 2 | 20 | 160 |
| November | 30 | 9 | 0 | 21 | 168 |
| December | 31 | 8 | 1 | 22 | 176 |
| 2026 | 365 | 104 | 14 | 247 | 1,976 |
What the numbers say about Zambia in 2026
The count uses Saturday and Sunday as the weekly rest days, the standard pattern in Zambia. 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.
2 holidays land on a rest day this year: Holy Saturday (4 Apr), Easter Sunday (5 Apr). 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.
June is the longest working month with 22 days, and May the shortest with 19. A gap of 3 days is enough to make a fixed monthly target noticeably harder in some months than in others. Across quarters, Q2 is the leanest at 60 working days (April, May, June).
Among the 204 countries we track for 2026, the median number of national holidays is 12. With 16, Zambia sits above the middle of the range, around the 87th percentile (the lowest count this year is 3, the highest 49).
Holidays create 9 stretches of three or more days off in a row. The longest lasts 4 days, from 3 April to 6 April (Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday). 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 2026.