Gujarat Government Holiday List 2026: Public, Optional and Bank Holidays

1. Holiday List
2. Gujarat Government Holiday List 2026: Public, Optional and Bank Holidays

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The Gujarat government holiday list 2026 has 23 public holidays for state offices, 18 bank holidays, and 35 optional holidays of which an employee can take two. It was issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) on 27 November 2025 under notification GS/22/2025/JSR/2025/509/GH. Every date on this page therefore comes from that notification.

Why does the right list matter? Because if you use the wrong one, you may pay single wages on a day the law treats as a paid holiday. Similarly, you may send salaries on a day the bank is closed.

Three Words You Will See on This Page

• Public holiday: All Gujarat government offices are closed, so everyone gets the day off.
• Optional holiday: The office stays open, but an employee can choose to take the day off. Each employee gets two such days a year.
• Bank holiday: Banks are closed under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. This is a central law about cheques and payments, so banks follow it instead of the government office list.

Gujarat Government Public Holidays 2026 (Part I of the GAD Notification)

State government offices close on these 23 days. Independence Day and Parsi New Year fall on the same date, 15 August, so the list shows 24 entries. Muslim holidays, however, depend on the sighting of the moon. If a date shifts, Muslim employees may therefore take an optional holiday on the day it is actually observed.

Source: General Administration Department, Government of Gujarat, holiday notification for 2026. Gujarati names added by factoHR for reference.

Festivals That Fall on a Sunday in 2026

Maha Shivratri (15 February), Parshuram Jayanti (19 April) and Diwali (8 November) fall on Sundays in 2026. Since Sunday is already a weekly off, the government does not give another day in place of them. As a result, if Diwali was one of your company’s chosen festival holidays, you now have one spare day to give on another festival.

Optional Holidays in Gujarat 2026 (Part II of the GAD Notification)

Think of optional holidays as a menu. The office stays open, but a state employee can pick any two days from this menu and take them off. First they apply for the day, and then the officer can say no if work is urgent. Many private companies also copy this idea and call the days “restricted holidays”.

Optional Holidays, January to June 2026

Optional Holidays, July to December 2026

Source: General Administration Department, Government of Gujarat, holiday notification for 2026, Part II.

Bank Holidays in Gujarat 2026 (Part III of the GAD Notification)

Banks in Gujarat close on 18 days in 2026 under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. In addition, banks and government treasuries close on 1 April 2026 to finish their yearly accounts. Once you add the second and fourth Saturday of every month, banks are closed on about 43 days in 2026, not counting Sundays.

Source: General Administration Department, Government of Gujarat, holiday notification for 2026, Part III, and the Reserve Bank of India holiday list for Ahmedabad.

Notice that the bank list is shorter than the office list. For example, Chetichand, Muharram, Parsi New Year, Eid-e-Milad, Bhai Bij and Guru Nanak Jayanti are office holidays but normal working days for banks. So if your salary date falls on 26 March, 31 March or 1 April 2026, send the money a day earlier.

Gujarat Festivals That Affect Leave and Attendance in 2026

These five festivals bring the most leave requests in Gujarat. Yet two of them are not public holidays at all.

Uttarayan, 14 January

This is the kite festival celebrated across Gujarat, and it is a public holiday. The next day, Vasi Uttarayan on 15 January, is only an optional holiday.

Dhuleti, 4 March

Gujarat gives the holiday on Dhuleti, the day people play with colours, rather than on Holi. Holi on 3 March is therefore only optional.

Rath Yatra, 16 July

The Ahmedabad Rath Yatra is an optional holiday in 2026, not a public one, so offices stay open. However, roads in Ahmedabad are closed for the procession, so let city teams work from home that day.

Navratri, October

The nine nights of Navratri end with Dussehra on 20 October 2026. Only Dussehra is a holiday, while the garba nights are not. Even so, late nights make morning shifts hard to fill, so many companies start work later that week.

Diwali to Bhai Bij, 7 to 11 November

Dhan Teras (7 November) is optional, and Diwali (8 November) is a Sunday. Bestu Varas, the Gujarati new year (10 November), and Bhai Bij (11 November) are public holidays. In between, government offices work on 9 November. Even so, many private companies close for the whole stretch, because most business in Gujarat stops during these days.

What Private Companies in Gujarat Must Do

The government list above is for government offices. Private shops, offices and commercial establishments follow a different law: the Gujarat Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2019. In simple terms, Section 18(7) of this Act says:

• Every worker gets eight paid festival holidays in a year.
• Three of them are fixed by law: 26 January, 15 August and 2 October.
• The company and its workers then agree on the other five before the year starts.
• On these eight days the worker is paid the normal daily wage, without overtime.
• If a worker works on one of these days, the company must pay double the normal daily wage and also give another paid day off later.

Factories, on the other hand, follow the Factories Act, 1948 and their own approved standing orders. Standing orders are the written service rules of a factory, so check the holiday clause there. For the bigger picture of which law applies to which workplace, see the factoHR labour law in India guide.

Take an example. A Vadodara office pays an executive ₹26,000 a month. That is ₹1,000 a day if you divide by 26 working days. Now suppose she works on Republic Day. Under Section 18(7) she must then get ₹2,000 for that day and one more paid day off later in the year. Giving only the day off, or only the extra pay, is not enough.

Minimum wage rates in Gujarat change every April and October, so recheck the daily rate before you calculate double wages. Current figures are on the Gujarat minimum wages page.

How to Build Your Company Holiday Calendar for 2026

1. First, start with the three national holidays, because every company must give them.
2. Next, pick five festival holidays from the public list. Uttarayan, Dhuleti, Bestu Varas, Bhai Bij and Dussehra are the usual Gujarat choices.
3. Then add two restricted holidays from the optional list.
4. After that, agree the list with employees before 1 January and put it up on the notice board.
5. Finally, load the list into your leave and attendance software, so work on a holiday is flagged for double wages.

If you need a starting document, the factoHR leave policy template has a holiday section you can adapt. Similarly, for earned, sick and casual leave rules, see the leave management guide.

Download the Gujarat Holiday List 2026 PDF

You can download the official Gujarat government holiday list 2026 PDF from the General Administration Department holidays page. It contains all three parts in one document, so you do not need to search for them separately.

Conclusion

In short, the Gujarat government holiday list 2026 gives you 23 public holidays, 35 optional holidays and 18 bank holidays, all from one GAD notification. Use the public list to choose festival holidays, the optional list for restricted holidays, and the bank list to time salary transfers. Above all, remember that under Section 18(7) of the Gujarat Shops and Establishments Act, 2019, eight of those days are paid holidays by law, and work on them means double wages plus a day off.

factoHR lets you load the Gujarat holiday calendar into leave and attendance once, so holiday work and compensatory offs are flagged for payroll with fewer manual checks. Other state calendars are also on the holiday list in India hub.

Gujarat Holiday List 2026 FAQs

How many government holidays are there in Gujarat in 2026?

The Gujarat government holiday list 2026 has 23 public holidays for state offices. Independence Day and Parsi New Year share 15 August, so the notification shows 24 entries. On top of this, every state employee can take two optional holidays from a list of 35. Banks, meanwhile, have a separate list of 18 days.

Is 1 May 2026 (Gujarat Day) a public holiday?

No. Gujarat Sthapana Din on 1 May is not in the 2026 public holiday list. Instead, the date appears only in the optional list, as Buddha Purnima. Government functions still mark the day, but offices stay open unless the government issues a separate order.

Do income tax and other central offices in Gujarat follow this list?

No. Income Tax, EPFO, ESIC, post offices and other central government offices follow the holiday list issued by the Department of Personnel and Training in New Delhi, not the GAD list. Some dates match, but not all of them.

Why does Samvatsari have two dates in 2026?

The public holiday is 15 September 2026. However, Jains follow two calendars. One group observes Samvatsari a day later, on 16 September, so the government lists that date as an optional holiday. Employers with Jain staff therefore usually allow either date without counting it as leave.

Which Gujarat holidays are still left in 2026?

From September 2026 the remaining public holidays are:

• Janmashtami, 4 September
• Samvatsari, 15 September
• Gandhi Jayanti, 2 October
• Dussehra, 20 October
• Sardar Patel Jayanti, 31 October
• Bestu Varas, 10 November
• Bhai Bij, 11 November
• Guru Nanak Jayanti, 24 November
• Christmas, 25 December

Can a private company work on a Gujarat public holiday?

Yes, on any day outside its eight festival holidays under the Shops and Establishments Act. On those eight days the company may still ask staff to work, but it must then pay double wages and give a substitute paid day off. Even so, a company cannot skip the three national holidays by paying extra.