Ghana Holidays: List and Dates of Remaining Public Holidays For 2026
- After Republic Day moved to July 3, Ghana now has four statutory holidays left on the 2026 calendar
- Founder's Day falls on September 21, followed by Farmers' Day on December 4, the first Friday of the month
- Christmas Day on December 25 and Boxing Day on December 26 round off the public holiday calendar for the year
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Statutory holidays are days most Ghanaians look forward to because of the opportunity to rest and take a break and rest from school and work, among others.
The holidays are even more precious now because of the new holiday regime that allows for bank holidays.
Source: Getty Images
After the Republic Day Holiday, which moved from July 1 to July 3, Ghana will have four more holidays to enjoy.
The first will be Founder's Day on September 21. The date of the holiday will not change because it falls on a Monday.
The next holiday after this will be Farmers' Day, which falls on the first Friday of December annually.
Farmers' Day in 2026 will fall on December 4.
The next two holidays will be Christmas Day on December 25 and Boxing Day on December 26.
Like the Eid ul-Adha holiday, these dates are unlikely to change.
The full list of remaining holidays is:
- Republic Day on July 3
- Founder's Day on September 21
- Farmers' Day in 2026 will fall on December 4
- Christmas Day on December 25
- Boxing Day on December 26
By the end of 2026, there would have been 14 celebrated public holidays and one commemorative one.
New holiday regime in Ghana
In June 2025, Parliament passed the Public Holidays and Commemorative Days which returned July 1’s Republic Day to statutory holiday status.
It also made Shaqq Day a statutory public holiday, which is observed a day after the Eid al-Fitr celebration by Muslims.
The bill also removed August 4 as Founders' Day and reinstated September 21, which is the birthday of Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, as Founders' Day.
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Controversy around August 4 holiday
Parliament, under the Nana Akufo-Addo administration, approved August 4 as a Statutory Holiday in 2019, and it was first celebrated in 2021.
August 4 was instituted to honour the various heroes and heroines who contributed to the independence struggle though it was criticised as a partisan effort spotlighting icons of the New Patriotic Party political tradition.
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Critics also described August 4 as the then-President Akufo-Addo's attempt to exalt his family members, who had been part of the country’s independence struggle, and to undermine Nkrumah.
The president’s family members, like J.B. Danquah, William Ofori-Atta and others, are also infamously remembered for their opposition to Nkrumah and his independence struggle.
Other public holiday changes
YEN.com.gh reported that another major change in the bill empowers the President to shift public holidays that fall on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays to either the following Friday or the preceding Monday, to improve national productivity and scheduling flexibility.
The bill was passed under a certificate of urgency after being presented by the Minister of the Interior on June 24, 2025, after the Committee on Defence and Interior and the leadership of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs deemed this as urgent.
Proofreading by Bruce Douglas, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
