Here’s a list of national holidays in the UAE for the rest of the year

There’s good and bad news. Let’s get the bad out of the way first. You’re probably already at your desk by the time you read this, which means that today isn’t a public holiday.

While Bahrain confirmed last week that it was going to have a public holiday today on account of the Isra’a Wal Miraj, it raised hopes in most of the other Gulf countries, which tend to follow similar holiday patterns.

 Read: Bahrain confirms Isra’a Wal Miraj holiday date

Then on Monday this week, Kuwait announced that it would be marking Sunday, April 15, as a public holiday.

 Read: Kuwait announces Isra’a Wal Miraj holiday

Yesterday though, the UAE announced that the private sector holiday for the country will now fall on Saturday.

Read: UAE announces private sector holiday for Isra’a Wal Miraj

For those who already have a Friday and Saturday off, they don’t get an additional day’s leave. But if you were otherwise working on a Saturday, you could enjoy a lie-in over the weekend.

Now for the good news. While the first half of the calendar year is lean on the holiday front, it’s the second half that’ll give you a few more days off from work. There are a number of holidays beginning in June.

UAE national holidays

June 14 – Thursday – Eid Al Fitr

August 20 – Monday – Arafat (Haj) Day

August 21 – Tuesday – Eid Al Adha

September 11 – Tuesday – Islamic New Year

November 19 – Monday – Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday

November 30 – Friday – Martyr’s Day

December 2 – Sunday – UAE National Day

We’d, of course, advise caution before you go ahead and lock in your holiday plans for the rest of the year. Most of these holidays are dependent on moon sightings and tend to shift a day or two.

In any case, ration out your leave so that you have plenty of it left by the time that the second half of the year rolls around.