UAE Holidays 2026: Official Public Holidays List, Dates & Planning Guide

UAE Holidays 2026: Complete Official Public Holidays Overview

We present this authoritative guide to UAE Holidays 2026 to support professionals, employers, HR leaders, and travelers who require accurate planning across the United Arab Emirates. Public holidays in the UAE are regulated by federal law and apply to both public and private sector organizations, ensuring national alignment for workforce scheduling, payroll processing, and operational continuity.

Understanding official holidays enables organizations to prepare workforce rosters, automate leave policies, maintain compliance, and optimize productivity. This guide consolidates confirmed and expected holidays based on federal regulations and astronomical forecasts for Islamic dates.

Official UAE Public Holidays List 2026

Below is the comprehensive list of expected official holidays under UAE Holidays 2026 regulations:

• New Year’s Day – Thursday, 1 January 2026

• Eid Al Fitr – Expected Wednesday to Friday, 18–20 March 2026

• Arafat Day – Expected Tuesday, 26 May 2026

• Eid Al Adha – Expected Wednesday to Friday, 27–29 May 2026

• Islamic New Year (Hijri New Year) – Expected Tuesday, 16 June 2026

• Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday (PBUH) – Expected Saturday, 29 August 2026

• Commemoration Day – Tuesday, 1 December 2026

• UAE National Day – Wednesday & Thursday, 2–3 December 2026

Islamic holidays depend on moon sighting and may vary by one day.

These dates represent essential planning benchmarks for businesses operating across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and all other Emirates.

How UAE Holidays Impact Businesses and Workforce Planning

Public holidays influence payroll cycles, attendance policies, service delivery timelines, and customer engagement strategies. Under UAE Holidays 2026, organizations must adjust monthly payroll cutoffs, manage overtime entitlements, plan temporary staffing or shift coverage, schedule system maintenance, and communicate leave policies in advance.

Failure to plan proactively can result in compliance risks, operational disruptions, delayed client deliverables, and employee dissatisfaction. Structured holiday planning therefore becomes a strategic business requirement rather than a simple administrative task.

Strategic Long Weekend Planning Opportunities

Several UAE Holidays 2026 dates create extended weekend opportunities:

• Eid Al Fitr may provide a five-to-seven-day break when combined with annual leave

• Eid Al Adha offers mid-week holiday clustering

• National Day naturally forms a four-day break

Professionals frequently optimize these windows for international travel, family commitments, or corporate shutdown periods. Employers benefit from forecasting workforce availability early to prevent productivity bottlenecks and resource shortages.

HR Automation for Holiday Compliance in the UAE

Manual holiday tracking increases the risk of payroll miscalculations and attendance disputes. Modern UAE organizations increasingly rely on cloud-based HR platforms to manage:

• Automated holiday calendars

• Leave balance adjustments

• Biometric attendance integration

• Overtime calculations

• Payroll synchronization

Decibel 360 Cloud provides a regionally compliant workforce automation solution designed specifically for UAE labor regulations. Organizations can centralize public holiday scheduling while maintaining real-time workforce visibility, audit readiness, and operational transparency.

We recommend reviewing their official platform for detailed UAE workforce automation capabilities:
Decibel 360 Cloud

Public vs Private Sector Holiday Rules

Under federal UAE law, public and private sector employees are entitled to the same number of public holidays. However, sector-specific operational requirements may influence shift-based coverage models, essential service staffing, remote work deployment, and compensatory leave policies.

Businesses should formally document their internal public holiday frameworks aligned with UAE Holidays 2026 to maintain transparency and legal compliance across departments.

Travel and Tourism Planning During UAE Holidays

Airlines, hotels, and tourism operators experience peak demand during major holidays. Early booking becomes essential for flight ticket availability, hotel pricing stability, visa appointment scheduling, and local attraction capacity.

Residents frequently combine Eid holidays with Schengen, UK, or Asian travel, while inbound tourism spikes during National Day celebrations due to nationwide events, cultural festivals, and retail promotions.

Compliance Checklist for Employers

To remain compliant under UAE Holidays 2026, organizations should ensure:

• Holiday calendars are updated in HR systems

• Payroll software reflects paid holiday rules

• Attendance devices exclude official holidays

• Employee contracts reference public holiday entitlements

• Internal communications announce confirmed dates

Digital HR platforms significantly reduce administrative workload while improving audit readiness and regulatory confidence.

Industry-Specific Considerations for UAE Holidays 2026

Different industries experience unique operational challenges during public holidays. Retail organizations must prepare for increased footfall during Eid and National Day campaigns, requiring expanded shift scheduling, extended store hours, targeted promotions, and temporary staffing models. Logistics providers often experience border processing delays and modified port operations, making delivery forecasting and warehouse workforce allocation critical for maintaining service-level agreements.

Healthcare institutions must maintain full staffing capacity while balancing employee wellbeing and legally mandated rest days. Construction and manufacturing companies typically reschedule heavy operations to avoid productivity losses during multi-day holidays, while financial institutions align settlement cycles and customer support availability around official closures. Technology companies frequently utilize public holidays for infrastructure upgrades, system migrations, data backups, disaster recovery testing, and system optimization.

Each sector benefits from centralized holiday configuration within HR systems to avoid misalignment between payroll, attendance tracking, and statutory compliance under UAE Holidays 2026.

Future Outlook for UAE Holiday Regulations

The UAE continues to modernize labor regulations to support workforce wellbeing and global competitiveness. Public holiday standardization improves economic predictability while enabling better regional coordination across GCC markets.

Digital workforce management platforms now play a strategic role in ensuring seamless compliance and operational resilience across annual holiday cycles.

Frequently Asked Questions – UAE Holidays 2026

1. Are UAE public holidays paid days off?

Yes. All official public holidays under UAE federal law are fully paid for both public and private sector employees.

2. Can employers require staff to work on public holidays?

Yes. Operational requirements may apply. In such cases, employees are entitled to compensatory leave or overtime compensation according to UAE labor law.

3. Are Islamic holiday dates confirmed in advance?

Dates are estimated based on lunar calculations and officially confirmed after moon sighting announcements.

4. Do part-time employees receive public holidays?

Entitlements depend on contractual terms but must follow proportional compliance with UAE labor regulations.

5. How can companies automate holiday management?

By deploying compliant HR platforms such as Decibel 360 Cloud, organizations automate calendars, payroll calculations, and attendance adjustments.