Himachal Pradesh Public Holidays 2026

Understanding Himachal Pradesh's Holiday Calendar in 2026

Himachal Pradesh declares 24 gazetted holidays for 2026 under Notification No. GAD-A (F)10-8/2025 dated Shimla, 23 October 2025, plus a 12-day restricted list from which every government employee may avail 2. Deputy Commissioners may declare a further 2 local holidays for their district.

The notification's distinguishing feature is Annexure-II: three days, Raksha Bandhan, Karwa Chouth and Bhai Duj, declared as gazetted holidays for women employees only, across all Government Offices, Boards, Corporations, and Educational Institutions. The notification extends them to women employees under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act and to daily-waged women employees. No other state in this set gazettes holidays by gender.

For payroll, commercial establishments fall under the Himachal Pradesh Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1969. The employer base is weighted toward government, tourism, hydropower, and the pharmaceutical belt around Baddi, Barotiwala, and Nalagarh, which runs national manufacturing schedules against a state calendar with an unusual number of weekend collisions.

National Holidays in Himachal Pradesh

Republic Day on Monday, January 26, Independence Day on Saturday, August 15, and Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday on Friday, October 2 are mandatory. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's Birthday on Tuesday, April 14 is separately gazetted, and Himachal Day follows the very next day on Wednesday April 15.

The 2026 calendar is unusually weekend-heavy. Statehood Day on January 25, Guru Ravidas's Birthday on February 1, Maha Shivratri on February 15, Parshuram Jayanti on April 19, and Diwali on November 8 all fall on Sundays, and Id-ul-Fitr and Independence Day on Saturdays. Seven of the 24 gazetted days cost a five-day-week office nothing.

Himachal Pradesh-Specific Holidays

Himachal Pradesh gazettes two founding days. Himachal Day on Wednesday, April 15 marks the formation of the state as a Part-C province in 1948; Statehood Day on Sunday, January 25 marks full statehood in 1971. Both are declared, and the January one lands on a Sunday in 2026.

The Annexure-II women-only holidays are the notification's most distinctive provision. Raksha Bandhan on Friday August 28, Karwa Chouth on Thursday October 29, and Bhai Duj on Wednesday November 11 are gazetted holidays for women employees and ordinary working days for everyone else. All three fall on weekdays in 2026, so the split is visible in practice rather than theoretical, and payroll and attendance systems need to apply them by gender rather than uniformly.

Dussehra is a single gazetted day on Tuesday October 20, with Mahashtami on Monday October 19 available as a restricted holiday. Note that Kullu Dussehra runs for a week from Vijayadashami and draws very heavy local participation in the Kullu valley, but only the one day is gazetted statewide, and the rest is handled through the Deputy Commissioner's local-holiday allowance.

Guru Ravidas's Birthday on February 1, Sant Guru Kabir Jayanti on June 29, Maharana Pratap Jayanti on June 17, and Maharishi Valmiki's Birthday on October 26 are all full gazetted days, which is a broader set of saint and community commemorations than most neighbouring states declare.

Annexure-IV separately lists 16 of the gazetted days as holidays under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. Banks in Himachal therefore close on a shorter list than government offices: Statehood Day, Guru Ravidas's Birthday, Maha Shivratri, Id-ul-Fitr, Parshuram Jayanti, Maharana Pratap Jayanti, and Muharram are gazetted for offices but not on the banking list.

Restricted Holidays in Himachal Pradesh

The restricted list runs to 12 days and every government employee may avail 2: New Year's Day, Makar Sankranti, Basant Panchami, Swami Dayanand Saraswati's birthday, Mahavir Jayanti, Easter Sunday, Rabindranath Tagore's birthday, Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra Mahashtami, Govardhan Puja, Guru Teg Bahadur's Martyrdom Day, and Christmas Eve.

Three of the twelve are effectively unusable in 2026. Easter Sunday falls on a Sunday, Tagore's birthday on a Saturday, and Guru Teg Bahadur's Martyrdom Day shares November 24 with the gazetted Guru Nanak's Birthday, so the office is closed regardless. That leaves nine days with practical value against a two-day quota.

Note that Raksha Bandhan, Karwa Chouth, and Bhai Duj do not appear on the restricted list. For male employees they are ordinary working days with no optional-holiday route. The Annexure-II mechanism is a gazetted entitlement for women rather than an optional day anyone can select.

HR & Payroll Guidance for Himachal Pradesh, 2026

The Annexure-II provision needs handling in the HR system rather than the calendar. Three gazetted days apply to women employees only, all three fall on weekdays in 2026, and the notification explicitly extends them to daily-waged women employees. A single uniform holiday calendar will either close the establishment for everyone or for no one, and both are wrong.

The banking list is shorter than the office list. Seven days gazetted under Annexure-I are absent from the Negotiable Instruments Act list in Annexure-IV, so government counterparties and banks are unavailable on different days. Anything involving payments, statutory deposits, or bank-dependent processes should be planned against Annexure-IV rather than the main list.

The Deputy Commissioner layer is not uniform. DCs declare 2 local holidays for their districts, but offices within the Shimla municipal limits get theirs declared by the State Government on the DC's proposal, the rest of Shimla district follows the DC as per past practice, and Himachal Government offices in Delhi get 2 declared by the State Government on the Principal Resident Commissioner's proposal. Three different mechanisms.

2026 is a favourable year on paper, since seven gazetted days fall on weekends, but that is a calendar accident and a recurring capacity plan should not be built on it.

Engage HRMS supports Himachal's gender-scoped Annexure-II holidays, the 2-day restricted quota, and district-level local holidays as separate configuration, so a Baddi plant and a Shimla office resolve the correct days without maintaining parallel calendars.