Sarawak’s Governor’s birthday fell on Saturday 10 October 2026, and the next one is Saturday 9 October 2027. It is a Sarawak-only public holiday, not a national one. Because the state fixes it on the second Saturday of October, it lands on a weekend every year.
The holiday matters less than the traffic. Most offices are shut on a Saturday anyway, so what changes in Kuching is a handful of Saturday-morning counters and about two weeks of road closures around Padang Merdeka for the parade. I have lived in Kuching since 2016, and I treat this week as a traffic event more than a festival.
Updated for 2026. The 2027 date is Saturday 9 October.
When Is the Sarawak Governor’s Birthday?
The Governor’s official birthday is the second Saturday of October: 10 October 2026, 9 October 2027 and 14 October 2028. It is the official birthday, not the real one: Tun Pehin Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar was born on 1 February 1946. The celebration takes its number from the man, so 2026 was the 80th and 2025 the 79th, and the headline changes every year.
The date stays put even when the events do not. In October 2023 the state postponed every birthday event, the investiture included, and 14 October remained a gazetted holiday.
Is It a Public Holiday, and Do You Get the Day Off?
It is a public holiday in Sarawak only; Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and the rest of Malaysia work as normal. For anyone on a Monday-to-Friday week it is a holiday on paper and nothing more. Under the Public Holidays Ordinance, a Sarawak holiday moves to the following Monday only when it falls on a Sunday, and the Ordinance has no equivalent for a Saturday, so a Saturday holiday earns no day in lieu. The Public Holidays (Amendment) Bill 2026, passed by the state assembly on 13 October, makes replacements automatic for Sunday and overlapping holidays and says nothing about Saturdays. This is the plain downside of the holiday: plenty of people look the date up, and for most of them it gives no day off.
What closes is whatever normally opens on a Saturday morning: bank branches, government counters, courts, JPJ and post offices on their Saturday hours. Malls, supermarkets, kopitiams and restaurants trade as on any Saturday, and tHe Spring and Vivacity both list 10am to 10pm daily. The rule for weekday holidays is the same one, and what else closes on Sarawak’s gazetted holidays covers the exceptions at Gawai and Chinese New Year.
Away from Padang Merdeka the day reads as a normal Saturday in Kuching. Staff rostered to work are the exception: the Sarawak Labour Ordinance sets holiday pay rates for work on a gazetted holiday, and what applies on a Saturday depends on the contract. The state’s gazetted list is at sarawak.gov.my.
Who Is the TYT, and Why Is This Not the Agong’s Birthday?
TYT stands for Tuan Yang Terutama, the form of address for the Yang di-Pertua Negeri, who is the Governor and the state’s ceremonial head. Sarawak has no hereditary ruler, so the Agong appoints the Governor after consulting the Premier. He sits at the top of Sarawak’s own institutions, with the Premier running the government and the state assembly (DUN) passing the laws. Wan Junaidi, a former federal minister, has held the post since 26 January 2024 for a four-year term. The post’s first holder gave his name to Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, one of the roads closed for the parade.
The Agong’s birthday is a different holiday: national, on the first Monday of June (1 June 2026, 7 June 2027). Sabah’s Governor has his own, moved in 2025 from the first Saturday of October to 30 March, so October belongs to Sarawak alone.
What Happens During Parade Week?
The 2026 celebration ran four days, Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 October, with seven events on the programme.
| Day | Time | Event | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 8 Oct | Maghrib and Isyak | Thanksgiving prayers | Masjid Jamek Kuching |
| Fri 9 Oct | 8pm | Thanksgiving for other faiths | Unifor complex |
| Sat 10 Oct | 8am | Parade and mass assembly | Padang Merdeka |
| Sat 10 Oct | Time not announced | Investiture of state honours | Astana |
| Sat 10 Oct | Time not announced | State banquet | DUN complex |
| Sat 10 Oct | 8pm | Konsert Rakyat, fireworks about 10.30pm | Padang Merdeka |
| Sun 11 Oct | Time not announced | Tea reception | Pullman Kuching |
The parade is the centrepiece. It brought 107 contingents onto the padang, a Royal Malay Regiment guard of honour, a seven-cannon salute during the state anthem Ibu Pertiwiku, and a flypast by a Navy AW139 and Air Force aircraft carrying the Sarawak flag. The parade was expected to draw 5,000 to 10,000 people, the minister in charge said. The evening concert drew more: one local report put the crowd at over 20,000, with Floor88, Aina Abdul and Amy Search at the top of the bill.
A resident can walk into the parade and the concert for free. The investiture, banquet and tea reception are formal state functions in the Astana, the DUN complex and a hotel rather than open-air events, and the honours list reaches the press after the investiture, with 35 recipients at the 10 October investiture.
Which Roads Close Around Padang Merdeka?
The closures come in three stages, and the Kuching district police published every one in late September 2026: tent set-up, morning rehearsals, and the event windows on 10 October.
- 28 September, 10am, to the night of 10 October: Jalan McDougall closed or diverted while tents go up and come down.
- 5 to 7 October, 7am to 11am: rehearsals on Jalan McDougall, Jalan Lampu Isyarat RTM, Jalan Wawasan and Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg near Carpenter Street.
- 8 October, 7am to 11am: full rehearsal, which adds Main Bazaar, Lebuh Temple, Lebuh Wayang and Jalan Gambier.
- 10 October: the same roads shut from 7am to 12pm for the parade and from 7pm to midnight for the concert.
The pattern repeats each year. In 2025 the closures ran from 2 to 12 October for a parade on Saturday 11 October, so expect tent works from the last days of September in 2027 and rehearsals in the week before the 9 October parade. The police advise against parking on road shoulders and take questions on 082-259900 (Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Division, Kuching district).
The complaint that comes up most among residents is the fortnight rather than the parade: commuters and school runs near Padang Merdeka lose their usual routes, and drivers who stop at the roadside to watch hold up everyone behind them.
The museum campus beside Padang Merdeka, the Old Courthouse and Plaza Merdeka sit on or beside the closed roads, so a visit is easier after the rehearsal closures lift at 11am. On parade morning the closures run until 12pm, so booking a Grab from outside the cordon and walking in beats hunting for a space.
Is the Parade Worth Going to Watch?
The parade is a proper state occasion with real soldiers, a cannon salute and a flypast, free to watch and over by late morning. The concert is the night more people turn up for: the 20,000 reported in 2026 is about twice the top of the organisers’ parade estimate. It is also the better choice for a single slot, because it ends with fireworks at about 10.30pm and the parade does not.
The Darul Hana Bridge is hot with very little shade by day, so the Waterfront stretch after the parade is better left until the late afternoon. The 2026 fireworks went up over the Darul Hana Bridge at about 10.30pm.
Other Sarawak-only dates: the days Sarawak shuts that Peninsular Malaysia does not are listed in full, month by month. Sarawak Day on 22 July and Gawai on 1 and 2 June come with their own events, and the rest of the Sarawak calendar spreads the bigger festivals across the year.