2026 Public Holiday Calendar: India (National + Tamil Nadu) and US Federal Holidays
If your team spans India and the US, leave planning means tracking two (or three, once you add a state) separate holiday calendars that rarely line up. This is a single reference for 2026 — Government of India gazetted holidays, Tamil Nadu state holidays, and US Federal holidays — so you can plan attendance and leave calendars without hunting across separate government sites.
A note before the tables: holiday dates come from official government sources, and a few of them — Eid-ul-Fitr, Bakrid, Muharram, and Milad-un-Nabi — follow the lunar calendar, so the exact date can shift by a day depending on moon sighting. Treat the dates below as the officially notified ones at the time of writing, and cross-check your own state or company HR calendar closer to the date.
Legend: 🕌 Islamic · 🛕 Hindu · ✝️ Christian · ☸️ Buddhist · 🪯 Sikh · 🏛️ Civic/national · 🌾 Harvest festival · 🏵️ Regional/cultural
Government of India — Gazetted Holidays 2026
These are the 17 compulsory holidays for central government offices, notified by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT).
| Date | Day | Holiday | Type | What it marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 26 | Mon | Republic Day | 🏛️ | India's Constitution came into force in 1950. |
| Mar 4 | Wed | Holi | 🛕 | Hindu festival of colors, marking spring's arrival. |
| Mar 21 | Sat | Id-ul-Fitr | 🕌 | Marks the end of Ramadan fasting. |
| Mar 26 | Thu | Ram Navami | 🛕 | Celebrates the birth of Lord Rama. |
| Mar 31 | Tue | Mahavir Jayanti | 🛕 | Birth anniversary of Lord Mahavira, Jain tradition. |
| Apr 3 | Fri | Good Friday | ✝️ | Commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. |
| May 1 | Fri | Buddha Purnima | ☸️ | Marks the birth of Gautama Buddha. |
| May 27 | Wed | Id-ul-Zuha (Bakrid) | 🕌 | Commemorates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice, per Islamic tradition. |
| Jun 26 | Fri | Muharram | 🕌 | Islamic New Year; a day of mourning for many. |
| Aug 15 | Sat | Independence Day | 🏛️ | India's independence from British rule in 1947. |
| Aug 26 | Wed | Milad-un-Nabi | 🕌 | Birth anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad. |
| Sep 4 | Fri | Janmashtami | 🛕 | Celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna. |
| Oct 2 | Fri | Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday | 🏛️ | Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. |
| Oct 20 | Tue | Dussehra | 🛕 | Marks the triumph of good over evil. |
| Nov 8 | Sun | Diwali (Deepavali) | 🛕 | Festival of lights, celebrating good over evil. |
| Nov 24 | Tue | Guru Nanak's Birthday | 🪯 | Birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, Sikhism's founder. |
| Dec 25 | Fri | Christmas Day | ✝️ | Commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. |
Tamil Nadu — State Holidays 2026
Tamil Nadu's calendar includes the national holidays above plus a set of state-specific festival holidays notified separately by the state government. If your team is based in Tamil Nadu (or you have members there), these are the ones that won't show up on a generic "India holidays" list.
| Date | Day | Holiday | Type | What it marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1 | Thu | New Year's Day | 🏛️ | Gregorian calendar New Year. |
| Jan 14 | Wed | Pongal (Thai Pongal) | 🌾 | Tamil harvest festival thanking the sun and cattle. |
| Jan 15 | Thu | Thiruvalluvar Day | 🏵️ | Honors poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar, author of the Tirukkural. |
| Jan 16 | Fri | Uzhavar Thirunal | 🌾 | "Farmers' Day," closing out the Pongal harvest festivities. |
| Apr 14 | Tue | Tamil New Year / Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's Birthday | 🏵️ | Tamil solar new year, and the birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, architect of India's Constitution. |
| May 1 | Fri | Labour Day | 🏛️ | International Workers' Day. |
| Sep 4 | Fri | Krishna Jayanthi | 🛕 | Tamil Nadu's observance of Janmashtami. |
| Sep 15 | Tue | Vinayakar Chathurthi | 🛕 | Honors Lord Ganesha; widely celebrated across Tamil Nadu. |
| Oct 19–20 | Mon–Tue | Ayutha Pooja / Vijaya Dasami | 🛕 | Tamil Nadu's Dussehra observance, honoring tools and instruments. |
Plus the national gazetted holidays in the table above, which also apply in Tamil Nadu (Republic Day, Good Friday, Id-ul-Fitr, Bakrid, Muharram, Independence Day, Milad-un-Nabi, Gandhi Jayanti, Diwali, Christmas).
US Federal Holidays 2026
The 11 federal holidays for 2026, per the US Office of Personnel Management's schedule.
| Date | Day | Holiday | Type | What it marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1 | Thu | New Year's Day | 🎉 | Calendar New Year. |
| Jan 19 | Mon | Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. | ✊ | Honors the civil rights leader's birth and legacy. |
| Feb 16 | Mon | Washington's Birthday | 🏛️ | Commonly called Presidents' Day; honors George Washington. |
| May 25 | Mon | Memorial Day | 🎖️ | Honors military service members who died in service. |
| Jun 19 | Fri | Juneteenth National Independence Day | ✊ | Marks the end of slavery in the US, June 19, 1865. |
| Jul 3 | Fri | Independence Day (observed) | 🇺🇸 | Marks the 1776 Declaration of Independence — observed Jul 3 since Jul 4 falls on a Saturday. |
| Sep 7 | Mon | Labor Day | 🏛️ | Honors the American labor movement. |
| Oct 12 | Mon | Columbus Day | 🏛️ | Marks Columbus's 1492 arrival in the Americas. |
| Nov 11 | Wed | Veterans Day | 🎖️ | Honors all who have served in the US military. |
| Nov 26 | Thu | Thanksgiving Day | 🦃 | Traditional harvest/gratitude holiday. |
| Dec 25 | Fri | Christmas Day | 🎄 | Commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. |
Using this for leave planning
The practical use of a list like this isn't the list itself — it's blocking these dates into your team's shared calendar before leave requests start clashing with them. If you're tracking attendance and leave in one place already, cross-referencing a holiday list like this against your team's planned time off up front avoids the scramble that happens when someone requests leave on a day that was already going to be a holiday, or misses that a "working day" they planned around wasn't one.
If you're managing this across India and US teams together, see how TripleMask Tracker handles attendance and leave in one workspace, or try it for free.
Sources: Government of India, Department of Personnel & Training (gazetted holidays); Government of Tamil Nadu, Public (Miscellaneous) Department (state holidays); US Office of Personnel Management (federal holidays). Dates reflect official notifications at time of publication — always confirm against your state gazette or company HR calendar before finalizing leave plans, since a small number of dates (particularly moon-sighting-dependent Islamic holidays) can be revised closer to the date.