UAE public holidays law explained: Why you could get more time off in 2025

If there’s anything that we can all agree on it’s that we could all do with more time off work.

And a recent tweak to the UAE public holidays law means that the dream of more time off could become a reality this year.

As of Wednesday January 1 in 2025, UAE public holidays are transferable if they fall on a weekend.

Many of the official dates of public holidays in the UAE are tied to the Islamic Hijri calendar which can lead to these national occasions falling on weekends so we haven’t been getting the benefit of additional days off until now.

For example, Islamic New Year falls on the first day of the Hijri month of Muharram but, in 2024, Muharram 1 was on Sunday July 7. This meant that while it was officially a paid holiday, private sector workers in Dubai did not feel the benefit as Sunday is a weekend which is already a day off for the majority of residents.

But this law change means that if that were to happen again this year, the holiday can be moved to the beginning or the end of the week instead.

This year we know that we’ll get at least 12 days off courtesy of the UAE government with an additional day dependent on whether Ramadan is a 29-day month or a 30-day month.

The UAE public holidays law explained

When is the next UAE public holiday? — Understanding the UAE public holidays law. (Credit: Supplied)

The change in the UAE public holidays law was announced last summer alongside confirmation of the paid holidays across the country.

The UAE constitution was revised to allow the majority of holidays to be transferred.

This means that if New Year’s Day, Islamic New Year, the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (PBUH) or National Day happen to fall on a weekend at any point then the UAE cabinet can move the public holiday to a day at the beginning or end of the week. What a win.

However the two longest public holidays – Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha – cannot be transferred if a day coincides with a weekend.

The official wording of the law states: “With the exception of Eid holidays, the Cabinet may – pursuant to a resolution it issues – transfer any of the public holidays referred to in Article (1) of this Resolution to the beginning or end of the week.”

Article (1) in this instance refers to all the public holiday dates we’ve outlined here with their predicted corresponding Gregorian calendar days.

UAE flag UAE public holidays — There are plenty of UAE public holidays coming up (Credit: Adobe Express)

However, the new law states that a public holiday cannot be transferred to another day if it happens to coincide with another public holiday.

This won’t apply to this year as there shouldn’t be any overlap between any Islamic Hijri holiday dates and the Gregorian holidays. But in a few years, we could see Eid Al Fitr possibly overlap with the Gregorian New Year holiday or National Day celebrations.

Last year’s resolution also stated that each emirate is free to add any other public holidays or any occasion that it wishes to celebrate. So, if Dubai ever feels like adding an extra holiday to the calendar then the emirate is able to do so.

The official weekend dates in the UAE have been Saturday and Sunday since the start of 2022, having previously been Friday and Saturday.

Curious about when the next UAE public holiday will be? Head here to keep up to date.