Assam Public Holidays 2026

Understanding Assam's Holiday Calendar in 2026

Assam declares 35 gazetted holidays for 2026 under GAD Notification e-file No. 221561/440 dated 17 November 2025, plus one half-holiday, against a 39-day restricted list from which an employee may avail any 2. All second and fourth Saturdays are holidays; all other Saturdays are full working days.

On top of that sits a district layer. District Commissioners may declare any 1 day of local significance as a Local Holiday, except for Kamrup Metro, where the General Administration Department declares 2 with the Chief Minister's approval. The GAD may also declare 2 additional holidays statewide with the Chief Minister's approval, so the published list is a floor rather than a ceiling.

The calendar is dominated by the three Bihus and by the Vaishnavite tradition of Srimanta Sankardeva and Madhabdeva, whose birth and death anniversaries account for five separate gazetted days. For payroll, commercial establishments fall under the Assam Shops and Establishments Act, 1971.

National Holidays in Assam

Republic Day on Monday, January 26, Independence Day on Saturday, August 15, and the Birthday of Mahatma Gandhi on Friday, October 2 are mandatory. Independence Day falls on a Saturday in 2026, and since only second and fourth Saturdays are otherwise holidays, whether it costs a working day depends on which Saturday of August it is.

Assam does not gazette Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14. That date is the first day of Bohag Bihu, which is a full closure for a different reason, so the practical effect is invisible. A calendar that maps April 14 to Ambedkar Jayanti will mislabel it and will miss the two following Bihu days entirely.

Assam-Specific Holidays

Bohag Bihu runs three gazetted days from Tuesday April 14 to Thursday April 16 and is the Assamese new year, the largest observance of the year. Magh Bihu takes two days on January 14 and 15, and Kati Bihu shares October 18 with the opening of Durga Puja. The Uruka feast night before Magh Bihu, on January 13, is a restricted holiday rather than a gazetted one.

Durga Puja runs four gazetted days from Sunday October 18 to Wednesday October 21, with Vijaya Dashomi on the last two. Because October 18 is a Sunday, the block costs three working days. Lakshmi Puja on Sunday October 25 is declared as a half-holiday with offices closing at 1 PM, which in 2026 has no practical effect as it falls on a Sunday.

Five gazetted days mark the Vaishnavite saints: the Janmotsav of Sri Sri Madhabdeva on June 1 and his Tirubhav Tithi on September 1, the Tirubhav Tithi of Srimanta Sankardeva on September 12 and his Janmotsav on September 21, and the Tithi of Damodar Deva on April 18. Together with Sati Sadhini Divas on April 21, they make September an unusually heavy month.

The tribal and community observances are split across both lists. Me-Dam-Me-Phi on January 31 (Ahom), Gwthar Bathou San on January 27 (Bodo), and Karam Puja on September 22 are gazetted; Busu Dima (Dimasa), Rongker Karkli and Karbi-Dehal-Kachir Dom (Karbi), Khring Khring Baithow Puja (Bodo), Hul Divas (Santhal), Kuki Chavang Kut, Wangala, Sikpui Ruoi (Hmar), and Gaan Ngai (Zeliangrong) are restricted.

Ali-Aye-Ligang on Wednesday, February 18 has a split status written into the notification. It is a full holiday in Dhemaji, North Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Majuli, Charaideo, and Biswanath (eleven districts) and a restricted holiday everywhere else. An employer with sites on both sides of that line cannot run one rule.

Asom Divas, also called Su-Ka-Pha Divas, on Wednesday December 2 commemorates the founding of the Ahom kingdom. Lachit Divas shares November 24 with Guru Nanak's Birthday.

Restricted Holidays in Assam

The restricted list runs to 39 days and an employee may avail any 2. As with the gazetted list, the length is not a measure of expected absence; the quota is.

Fourteen restricted days fall on Saturdays or Sundays in 2026, and four more coincide with dates already gazetted: Busu Dima on January 27, Kalicharan Brahma's birthday on April 18, Sati Radhika Utsav on May 1, and Guru Teg Bahadur's death anniversary on November 24. That leaves roughly twenty days with any practical value.

Several observances that are gazetted elsewhere in India sit on Assam's restricted list: Maha Shivaratri on February 15, Mahavir Jayanti on March 31, and Christmas Eve on December 24. Easter Saturday is restricted while Good Friday is gazetted.

Separately from the restricted quota, the notification allows Special Casual Leave for Matri Pitri Vandana on 9-10 July or 23-24 July, each pair clubbable with the following second or fourth Saturday and Sunday. That is a leave entitlement rather than a holiday and should be tracked as such.

HR & Payroll Guidance for Assam, 2026

The Saturday rule is the thing most often got wrong. Only second and fourth Saturdays are holidays in Assam; all other Saturdays are full working days. A calendar that treats Assam as a five-day week will overstate closures by roughly twenty days a year.

April and September are the constrained months. April carries the three Bohag Bihu days plus Good Friday, Damodar Deva and Sati Sadhini Divas; September carries four Vaishnavite anniversaries plus Janmastomi and Karam Puja. October's Durga Puja block takes another three working days.

The district layer means the published list is a floor. Every District Commissioner declares one local holiday, Kamrup Metro gets two declared by the GAD, and the GAD may add two more statewide with the Chief Minister's approval. Confirm the local declarations for each site at the start of the year rather than assuming the state list is complete.

Ali-Aye-Ligang needs per-district handling: full holiday in eleven named districts, restricted in the rest. This is the one date where the same day carries two different classifications within Assam.

Engage HRMS models Assam's second-and-fourth-Saturday rule, the 2-day restricted quota, and district-level local holidays separately, so an upper Assam site and a Guwahati site can hold different declared days under one state policy.