Latest update — 19 August 2026: The next UAE public holiday is Friday 28 August 2026 — the Prophet's Birthday (Mawlid Al Nabawi), declared by the UAE Government Media Office for the public and private sectors, giving a three-day weekend of 28–30 August. Nothing further has been confirmed for 2027: every Islamic date below remains an astronomical projection until the moon-sighting committee announces it, and this page marks each date as fixed or expected accordingly.
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: Friday 28 August 2026
Yes — Friday 28 August 2026 is a paid public holiday in the UAE, for private-sector employees as well as government staff. The UAE Government Media Office declared it for the Prophet's Birthday (Mawlid Al Nabawi), so the country gets a three-day weekend: Friday 28, Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August. Thursday 27 August is a normal working day — the announcement covers 28 August only, and no extra day was added on either side.
The Friday placement is the transfer rule working as designed: 12 Rabi Al Awwal fell mid-week, and the Cabinet moved the observed holiday to the end of the week so that it joins the weekend instead of splitting it.
Upcoming UAE Public Holidays and Long Weekends
| Holiday | Date | Consecutive days off | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prophet's Birthday (Mawlid Al Nabawi) | Friday 28 August 2026 | 3 (Fri 28 – Sun 30 Aug) | Announced |
| Eid Al Etihad (55th National Day) | Wednesday 2 – Thursday 3 December 2026 | 2, or 5 with one leave day (Fri 4 Dec) | Fixed by law |
| New Year's Day | Friday 1 January 2027 | 3 (Fri 1 – Sun 3 Jan) | Fixed by law |
| Eid Al Fitr | Around Tuesday 9 – Thursday 11 March 2027 | Up to 6 | Expected (moon sighting) |
| Arafah Day + Eid Al Adha | Around Saturday 15 – Tuesday 18 May 2027 | 4 | Expected (moon sighting) |
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
| Holiday | 2027 date | Status | Break on a Sat–Sun weekend |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | Friday 1 January | Fixed | 3 days (Fri 1 – Sun 3 Jan) |
| Eid Al Fitr (29 Ramadan – 3 Shawwal) | Tue 9 – Thu 11 March, or Tue 9 – Fri 12 March if Ramadan runs 30 days | Expected | Up to 6 days (Tue 9 – Sun 14 Mar) in the 30-day case |
| Arafah Day + Eid Al Adha (9–12 Dhu Al Hijjah) | Sat 15 – Tue 18 May | Expected | 4 days (Sat 15 – Tue 18 May) |
| Hijri New Year (1 Muharram) | Sunday 6 June | Expected | Falls on the weekend — watch for a transfer decision |
| Prophet's Birthday (12 Rabi Al Awwal) | Saturday 14 August | Expected | Falls on the weekend — watch for a transfer decision |
| Eid Al Etihad (National Day) | Thursday 2 – Friday 3 December | Fixed | 4 days (Thu 2 – Sun 5 Dec) |
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.
- 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 2026 is a live 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:
| Break | Leave days used | Consecutive days off |
|---|---|---|
| New Year (Fri 1 – Sun 3 Jan) | 0 | 3 |
| Eid Al Fitr, 30-day Ramadan case (Tue 9 – Sun 14 Mar) | 0 | 6 |
| Eid Al Fitr stretched (Sat 6 – Sun 14 Mar) | 1 (Mon 8 Mar) | 9 |
| Eid Al Adha (Sat 15 – Tue 18 May) | 0 | 4 |
| Eid Al Adha stretched (Sat 15 – Sun 23 May) | 3 (Wed 19 – Fri 21 May) | 9 |
| Eid Al Etihad (Thu 2 – Sun 5 Dec) | 0 | 4 |
| Eid Al Etihad stretched (Wed 1 – Sun 5 Dec) | 1 (Wed 1 Dec) | 5 |
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 wild cards — if the Cabinet transfers either into the working week, an extra long weekend appears; announcements typically come days, not months, ahead. 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
| Service | 2–3 December | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Federal ministries and local government departments | Closed | Friday 4 December is a working day; the weekend follows on 5–6 December |
| Banks | Closed | Apps, ATMs and card payments unaffected; branch and clearing business resumes Friday 4 December |
| Public and private schools | Closed | Term dates in our UAE school calendar |
| Private-sector workplaces | Closed, paid | Same unified list as the public sector — see leave entitlements |
| Malls, supermarkets, restaurants, cinemas | Open | Commonly extended hours — among the busiest retail evenings of the winter |
| Hospitals, pharmacies, police, civil defence | Open | Emergency cover normal; outpatient clinics and admin counters on reduced rosters |
| Metro, tram, buses, marine transport | Open, amended timetable | RTA publishes holiday hours shortly beforehand — some services extend, others start later |
- 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 — holidays are billed at the off-peak flat rate rather than peak pricing, with the standard overnight free window. Abu Dhabi is the opposite case: it has suspended several Darb gates over past holidays while leaving others active. 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. Abu Dhabi Police have set the permitted decoration window at 25 November to 6 December; 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 — the most commonly broken rule, and the reason flags need to be decals or securely fixed rather than flown.
- 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, passengers and pedestrians alike.
- 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, and the two largest forces publicise them slightly differently for their own enforcement: Dubai Police cite AED 2,000, 23 black points and a 60-day impound for reckless driving and stunts, 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 violation.
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:
| National Day | Emirates that ran a campaign | Emirates that did not |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 (53rd) | Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah — 50% each, time-boxed | Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah |
| 2025 (54th) | Sharjah — a black-point waiver rather than a fine discount; Umm Al Quwain — 40% | Dubai, Abu Dhabi |
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 and 25% within a year, in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman — are reliable every day of the year, and are set out in our traffic fines guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Friday 28 August 2026 a holiday for the private sector?
Yes. The UAE Government Media Office announcement covers both the federal public sector and the private sector: a paid holiday for the Prophet's Birthday (Mawlid Al Nabawi), creating a three-day weekend from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 August 2026.
Is Thursday 27 August 2026 a working day?
Yes. The announcement covers Friday 28 August only. Thursday 27 August is a normal working day for both the public and private sectors, and no extra day was added before or after the Friday.
When is the next long weekend in the UAE?
Friday 28 to Sunday 30 August 2026 — three days off for the Prophet's Birthday. After that, the next break is Eid Al Etihad on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 December 2026, which becomes a five-day break (2–6 December) if you take Friday 4 December as annual leave.
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 Abu Dhabi Police set the permitted window at 25 November to 6 December. 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 — Dubai Police cite AED 2,000, 23 black points and a 60-day impound for reckless driving and stunts.
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 violation. 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.
Related reading: 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.
