UAE Public Holidays 2027: Official Dates, Long Weekends, and What Is Left of 2026

The UAE's public holidays (العطلات الرسمية, also written الإجازات الرسمية) are not re-invented each year: the recurring calendar is fixed by Cabinet Resolution No. 27 of 2024, which sets the same paid holidays for the public and private sectors. That means the 2027 holiday set is already known today — what moves is the Gregorian date of each Islamic holiday, confirmed by moon sighting shortly before the day. This guide lists every 2027 holiday with its status, the long-weekend arithmetic on the UAE's Saturday–Sunday weekend, and what is still left of 2026.

Next UAE Public Holiday: Wednesday 2 – Thursday 3 December 2026

Yes — Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 December 2026 are paid public holidays in the UAE, for private-sector employees as well as government staff. This is Eid Al Etihad, the 55th National Day, and it is fixed by Cabinet Resolution No. 27 of 2024 — it does not depend on a moon sighting, but the Cabinet may move any non-Eid holiday to the start or end of the week and did so in 2025, when the holiday was observed on Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 December. Treat 2–3 December as the default until FAHR and MOHRE confirm it, which happened on 17 November in 2025.

Friday 4 December is a normal working day unless the Cabinet shifts the holiday to Thursday–Friday. That makes it the highest-value single leave day left in 2026: taking Friday 4 December as annual leave joins the two holidays to the weekend for five consecutive days off, Wednesday 2 to Sunday 6 December. Without it the break is the two holiday days plus a normal Saturday–Sunday weekend, split by a working Friday. What closes on the day, what the car-decoration rules are, and whether the 50% fine discount is real: see the Eid Al Etihad section below.

Upcoming UAE Public Holidays and Long Weekends

The full 2027 list — including the two holidays that fall on a weekend and may be transferred — is in the table below.

UAE Public Holidays 2027 — At a Glance

That is 12 or 13 paid holiday days in 2027, depending on whether Ramadan runs 29 or 30 days. Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin around Monday 8 February.

How UAE Holiday Law Works

Three rules from Cabinet Resolution No. 27 of 2024 explain most of what surprises people:

• One list for everyone. Public and private sector employees get the same paid holidays. An employer can add days, but cannot subtract them — public holidays are paid days off in addition to the annual leave covered in our leave entitlements guide, though a holiday that falls inside a period of annual leave counts as part of that leave unless your contract is more generous.
• Holidays can be moved — except the Eids. The Cabinet may transfer a holiday to the start or end of the week to create a longer break. Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha are exempt: they are observed on their Hijri dates wherever those land. The Friday placement of Mawlid in August 2026 is a recent example of the rule in action.
• Islamic dates are confirmed late by design. Eid Al Fitr, Eid Al Adha, Hijri New Year and the Prophet's Birthday follow the lunar calendar; the official date lands with the moon-sighting committee's announcement, usually the evening before. Astronomical projections (used on this page) are reliable to within a day, so treat March and May travel bookings accordingly.

The UAE Weekend: Saturday and Sunday

A weekly rest day and a public holiday are not the same thing, and most of the confusion about UAE holidays starts there.

• The standard weekend is Saturday and Sunday. The federal government moved to a four-and-a-half-day week on 1 January 2022 — Monday to Thursday full days, Friday a half day ending at midday — and most of the private sector followed with a Saturday–Sunday weekend.
• Friday is a working day for most private-sector employees. That is why a holiday announced for a Friday, like 28 August 2026, is a genuine extra day off rather than a formality.
• Sunday is a weekly rest day, not a public holiday. It is not on the official list and is not paid as a holiday — it is simply part of the weekend.
• The employer picks the rest day. Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 entitles every employee to at least one rest day a week and lets the employer decide which day, so a minority of private employers still run a Friday–Saturday or rotating weekend. Check your contract before doing long-weekend arithmetic.
• Sharjah's government sector works a four-day week with a Friday–Sunday weekend, so break arithmetic there differs — the holiday list itself is the same.

Long-Weekend Planner for 2027

With the standard Saturday–Sunday weekend, here is where paid leave buys the most consecutive days off in 2027:

The March window is the one to protect in your leave budget: if Ramadan completes 30 days, a single leave day turns Eid Al Fitr into nine consecutive days off. The two weekend-falling holidays (Hijri New Year on Sunday 6 June, Prophet's Birthday on Saturday 14 August) are the ones to watch for the opposite reason: Article 3 of the resolution says a holiday that falls on the weekend is not carried over, so neither produces a substitute weekday. Both published projections keep them on the weekend — the International Astronomical Center's Hijri tables give Saturday 5 or Sunday 6 June for Hijri New Year and Saturday 14 or Sunday 15 August for the Prophet's Birthday, and the Ministry of Education's school calendar marks Sunday 6 June and Saturday 14 August — so neither is expected to give a weekday off. Long weekends fill up fast — our kids' activities guide covers the staycation side, and the UAE school calendar shows where term breaks do and do not line up with these dates.

Eid Al Etihad 2026: Closures, Car Decoration Rules, and the Fine-Discount Myth

Eid Al Etihad on 2–3 December is the one UAE holiday with its own logistics: a fixed two-day closure, a police-regulated window for decorating your car, and an annual rumour about traffic fines that turns out to be wrong more often than right. Here is what holds every year, and what only holds when your emirate says so.

What Is Open and Closed on 2–3 December

• Paid parking is normally free on public holidays in Dubai's RTA zones, with multi-storey car parks excluded. The exemption is announced per holiday rather than granted automatically, so check the RTA notice instead of assuming.
• Dubai's Salik gates keep charging. Tolls are not suspended for public holidays: Salik says its variable toll schedule may apply on holidays, with the rates and timings announced closer to each date. Abu Dhabi is the opposite case: Darb tolls are not charged on Sundays or official holidays, except at the Al Qurm and Ghantout gates, which have charged AED 4 around the clock since 4 May 2026. Current rates and gate lists are in our Salik and Parkin guide.
• Fireworks locations and the Union Fortress display are confirmed in the last week of November, not months ahead. Treat any December schedule circulating in October as unconfirmed.

Can You Put a UAE Flag on Your Car?

Yes — decorating your car for Eid Al Etihad is legal and encouraged, inside a set of rules the police publish every year and enforce on the day. The permitted decoration window is announced each November — Abu Dhabi Police set 22 November to 6 December in 2014 and 2015, for example. The 2026 window has not been announced yet; outside it, National Day decorations are treated as ordinary vehicle-modification violations.

Allowed: the UAE flag and national phrases; decals, stickers and colourful motifs applied to the sides of the vehicle; anything that leaves your visibility and other drivers unaffected.

Not allowed:

• Flagpoles mounted on the vehicle — police notices warn against installing a flag, so use decals or stickers on the sides instead.
• Obscuring the front or rear number plate in any way, including with a flag or a decal.
• Changing the vehicle's original paint colour — a full-colour wrap counts as a modification and needs approval regardless of the occasion.
• Stickers or sunshades on the windscreen, rear window or side windows. Tinting beyond the permitted limit is a separate AED 1,500 fine.
• Passengers on the roof or in the bed of a pickup, or leaning out of windows and sunroofs.
• Spray foam, silly string and paint aimed at people, cars or pedestrians — prohibited for drivers and passengers.
• Offensive phrases or inappropriate stickers, noisy accessories, engine revving and drifting.
• Convoys and rallies that obstruct traffic or block other drivers.

The penalties are the ordinary traffic schedule rather than a special National Day tariff: the federal fines schedule sets AED 2,000, 23 black points and a 60-day impound for driving that endangers lives, while Abu Dhabi Police have publicised AED 2,000, 12 black points and a 30-day impound for National Day traffic violations. Noisy vehicles run to AED 2,000 and 12 points; stopping in the roadway without reason, AED 1,000 and 6 points. Full tables in our UAE traffic fines and black points guide.

The "50% National Day Fine Discount": What Is Actually True

There is no automatic, nationwide 50% discount on traffic fines for National Day. It is the most repeated piece of misinformation around the holiday, and acting on it — leaving fines unpaid through November to wait for a discount that may never arrive — usually costs money rather than saving it, because the standing 35% early-payment discount expires 60 days after each fine is issued.

What actually happens is that each emirate's police force decides independently, year by year, whether to run a National Day campaign at all. The last two years show how uneven that is:

So for residents of the two most populous emirates, the "National Day 50%" did not materialise in either of the last two years. Three further details the rumour always omits:

• Campaigns cover only violations committed before a cut-off date — commonly 1 December — so a fine you collect during the holiday itself is not included.
• Serious offences are always excluded, along with the court-referred offences under Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2024.
• A black-point waiver is not a fine discount. Sharjah's 2025 initiative cleared points for drivers who settled their dues by 10 January 2026 — the fines themselves still had to be paid.

Abu Dhabi Police went as far as publicly denying a circulating 50%-discount rumour in May 2024, restating that their only official scheme is the standing early-payment discount and urging motorists to rely on official sources. That is the test to apply: a discount is real when it shows in the Dubai Police, TAMM, Abu Dhabi Police or MOI UAE app, and not when it arrives as a forwarded message. The standing schemes — 35% within 60 days of the fine being issued and 25% within a year, in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah — apply every day of the year (in Abu Dhabi, confirm the discounted amount in TAMM or the Abu Dhabi Police app), and are set out in our traffic fines guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Eid Al Etihad a holiday for the private sector?

Yes. Eid Al Etihad on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 December 2026 is a paid public holiday for private-sector employees as well as government staff — the UAE runs one unified holiday list for both sectors under Cabinet Resolution No. 27 of 2024. Both days are paid, and they are in addition to your annual leave entitlement.

Is Friday 4 December 2026 a working day?

Yes. The resolution sets the holiday on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 December, so by default Friday 4 December is a normal working day for both the public and private sectors — but the Cabinet may transfer non-Eid holidays to the start or end of the week and did so in 2025 (observed 1–2 December), so wait for the mid-November announcement before booking around it. It is the bridge day worth spending annual leave on: one leave day on Friday 4 December turns the break into five consecutive days off, Wednesday 2 to Sunday 6 December.

When is the next long weekend in the UAE?

Eid Al Etihad, Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 December 2026 — two paid days off, which become a five-day break from Wednesday 2 to Sunday 6 December if you take Friday 4 December as annual leave. After that the next break is New Year's Day, Friday 1 January 2027, which falls straight onto the weekend for three days off (Friday 1 to Sunday 3 January).

Can I decorate my car with a UAE flag for National Day?

Yes, within the police rules. Flags, national phrases and decals are allowed on the sides of the vehicle, and the police announce the permitted window each November (Abu Dhabi Police set 22 November to 6 December in 2014 and 2015; the 2026 window is not yet announced). Not allowed: flagpoles mounted on the car, covering the number plates, changing the vehicle's paint colour, stickers on the windscreen or side windows, passengers on the roof or leaning out of sunroofs, and spray foam or silly string. Violations are charged under the ordinary traffic schedule, which sets AED 2,000, 23 black points and a 60-day impound for driving that endangers lives.

Is there a 50% discount on traffic fines for UAE National Day?

Not automatically, and not nationwide. Each emirate decides separately each year. In 2024 Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah ran 50% campaigns while Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah ran none; in 2025 only Sharjah (a black-point waiver) and Umm Al Quwain (40%) ran anything at all. Withholding payment in the hope of a December discount usually costs more than it saves, because the standing 35% early-payment discount expires 60 days after the fine is issued. Check the official police app rather than social media — Abu Dhabi Police publicly denied a 50%-discount rumour in May 2024.

Is 14 or 15 August a public holiday in the UAE?

No. 14 August is Pakistan's Independence Day and 15 August is India's — both widely marked by UAE residents, but neither is a UAE public holiday and neither is a paid day off. In 2026 they fall on a Friday and a Saturday in any case. One coincidence worth knowing: in 2027 the Prophet's Birthday is expected on Saturday 14 August, which would make that date a UAE public holiday for an unrelated, lunar-calendar reason.

What is the UAE weekend, and is Sunday a public holiday?

The standard UAE weekend is Saturday and Sunday, in place since the federal government moved to a four-and-a-half-day week on 1 January 2022 (Monday to Thursday full days, Friday to midday). Sunday is a weekly rest day, not a public holiday — it does not appear on the official list. Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 entitles every employee to at least one rest day a week and lets the employer choose which day, so some private employers still run a Friday–Saturday or rotating weekend. Sharjah's government sector works a four-day week with a Friday–Sunday weekend.

How many public holidays does the UAE have in 2027?

12 or 13 paid days: New Year (1), Eid Al Fitr (3 or 4, depending on whether Ramadan runs 29 or 30 days), Arafah Day and Eid Al Adha (4), Hijri New Year (1), the Prophet's Birthday (1), and Eid Al Etihad (2).

Are the 2027 Eid dates confirmed?

Not yet — and they will not be until the moon-sighting committee announces each one, usually the evening before. The projections (Eid Al Fitr around 9–12 March, Eid Al Adha around 15–18 May) are astronomical estimates, reliable to within about a day. The Gregorian-fixed holidays — 1 January and 2–3 December — are certain now.

When does Ramadan 2027 start?

Around Monday 8 February 2027, subject to moon sighting. Working hours are reduced by two hours a day during Ramadan for private-sector employees.

Can the UAE move a public holiday to a different day?

Yes — under Cabinet Resolution No. 27 of 2024 the Cabinet may transfer a holiday to the beginning or end of the week, except Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha, which stay on their Hijri dates. The 2026 Prophet's Birthday holiday landing on a Friday (28 August) is a recent example.

Do private-sector employees get the same holidays as government employees?

Yes. Since the unified holiday calendar, the official list applies to both sectors, and holidays are paid. Employers may grant additional days but cannot reduce the official ones. Public holidays are separate from — and additional to — your 30-day annual leave entitlement, although a holiday that falls inside a period of annual leave counts as part of that leave unless your contract is more generous.

Related reading: Ramadan in the UAE, New Year's Eve in Dubai, camping in the winter season, annual leave, sick leave and public holiday rules, the UAE school calendar, things to do with kids in the UAE, and the wider UAE expat guide.