Papua New Guinea Public Holidays
Discover upcoming public holiday dates for Papua New Guinea and start planning to make the most of your time off.
Papua New Guinea celebrates eight national holidays each year. The Easter Holiday is a four-day celebration, with each day except Sunday considered a national holiday. The Christmas holiday consists of a minimum of two days celebration, and often extends over three days depending on the day the actual holiday falls on during the week.
All holidays are regulated under the Public Holiday’s Act of 1953, Chapter 321 of the Consolidated Laws of Papua New Guinea. This law also gives the Prime Minister the authority to declare additional holidays if necessary. In most cases, holidays are declared when there is a death of a prominent government official either current or retired, or if there are special events taking place in the country.
The Labour Code of Papua New Guinea states that all employers must provide employees with a paid day off for nationally recognised holidays. If the employer must have an employee present during a holiday, the employee must receive the equivalent of time and one half per hour worked or given a different paid day off in lieu of the holiday.
Many businesses close for the entire period between December 25 and January 2 for the holidays. The government, however, only requires businesses to acknowledge the official holidays during this period for paying employees and providing days off.