Sarawak observes 18 public holidays in 2026: the federal ones every Malaysian gets, plus a set of state-only days that Peninsular Malaysia does not share, including Good Friday, both days of Gawai Dayak (June 1 and 2), Sarawak Day on July 22, and the Governor’s birthday on October 10. That makes Sarawak one of the two states, with Sabah, that get the most public holidays in the country. I’ve lived here through seven of these calendars, and the count matters in practice: it shapes when you can actually get anything official done.
Part of our guide to Festivals & Events.
The practical version: from late May to early June 2026, Sarawak gets an unusually long festive stretch because Wesak Day, the Agong’s birthday, and Gawai all land within three days of each other, and the state has gazetted replacement days to cover the overlap. More on that below, because it’s the part I see trip up people in my own first few years here.
Key Takeaways
- Sarawak has 18 public holidays in 2026, more than most Peninsular states.
- Sarawak-only days: Good Friday (April 3), Gawai Dayak (June 1–2), Sarawak Day (July 22), Governor’s birthday (October 10).
- Early June is one long block: Wesak (May 31), Agong’s birthday + Gawai Day 1 (June 1), Gawai Day 2 (June 2), plus replacement days June 3 and 4.
- Banks, government offices, and schools close on gazetted holidays. Hawker stalls and malls mostly stay open, except during Gawai and Chinese New Year.
- Islamic holiday dates (Hari Raya, Awal Muharram, Maulidur Rasul) can shift by a day on moon sighting, so treat them as near-final, not locked.
- The real cost of all these holidays is administrative: anything involving a government counter slows to a crawl around the festive blocks.
The full 2026 Sarawak public holidays table
Here is every gazetted public holiday in Sarawak for 2026. “Federal” means it’s observed nationwide; “Sarawak only” means Peninsular states don’t get it.
| Date | Day | Holiday | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | Thursday | New Year’s Day | Federal |
| 17 February | Tuesday | Chinese New Year | Federal |
| 18 February | Wednesday | Chinese New Year (2nd day) | Federal |
| 20 March | Friday | Hari Raya Aidilfitri (extra day) | Federal* |
| 21 March | Saturday | Hari Raya Aidilfitri | Federal* |
| 22 March | Sunday | Hari Raya Aidilfitri (2nd day) | Federal* |
| 3 April | Friday | Good Friday | Sarawak only |
| 1 May | Friday | Labour Day | Federal |
| 27 May | Wednesday | Hari Raya Haji | Federal* |
| 31 May | Sunday | Wesak Day | Federal* |
| 1 June | Monday | Agong’s Birthday + Gawai Dayak (Day 1) | Federal + Sarawak |
| 2 June | Tuesday | Gawai Dayak (Day 2) | Sarawak only |
| 3 June | Wednesday | Replacement holiday for Wesak Day | Sarawak only |
| 4 June | Thursday | Replacement holiday for Gawai Dayak Day 1 | Sarawak only |
| 17 June | Wednesday | Awal Muharram | Federal* |
| 22 July | Wednesday | Sarawak Day | Sarawak only |
| 25 August | Tuesday | Maulidur Rasul (Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday) | Federal* |
| 31 August | Monday | Merdeka Day | Federal |
| 16 September | Wednesday | Malaysia Day | Federal |
| 10 October | Saturday | Governor of Sarawak’s Birthday | Sarawak only |
| 25 December | Friday | Christmas Day | Federal |
\*Islamic holidays and Wesak depend on lunar or moon-sighting calendars and may move by a day if the official sighting differs. The dates above match the gazetted 2026 list as of mid-2026.
Which holidays are Sarawak-only?
Six 2026 holidays are state-only and do not appear on the Peninsular calendar: Good Friday (April 3), both days of Gawai Dayak (June 1–2), Sarawak Day (July 22), and the Governor of Sarawak’s birthday (October 10). The June 3 and 4 replacement days are also Sarawak gazette additions, so in effect the early-June block is largely a state affair stacked on top of a federal one.
Good Friday caught me out when I first arrived from KL. It’s a working day in most of Peninsular Malaysia, but in Sarawak, with its large Christian population among the Dayak and Chinese communities, it’s a full public holiday. Sabah observes it too. So a friend of mine in Kuala Lumpur is at his desk on April 3 while I am not.
Sarawak Day, on July 22, marks the day in 1963 when Sarawak was granted self-government ahead of joining the Malaysian Federation that September. The state gazetted it as a public holiday in 2016. It carries some political weight here, tied to debates about Sarawak’s autonomy within Malaysia, but for daily life it functions as a mid-week day off in the middle of the year.
What is Gawai Dayak and why does it close the city?
Gawai Dayak is Sarawak’s harvest festival, celebrated by the Iban, Bidayuh, and Orang Ulu communities on June 1 and 2. It’s the holiday that empties Kuching. Many Dayak families drive back to their longhouse or kampung for the week, so offices run on skeleton staff, plenty of eateries shut for several days, and the city goes quiet in a way it does at no other time except Chinese New Year. I’ve written a separate guide to what Gawai actually involves if you want the cultural detail.
In 2026 Gawai collides with two other holidays. Wesak Day falls on Sunday May 31, and the Agong’s birthday falls on Monday June 1, the same day as Gawai’s first day. Under the Sarawak Labour Ordinance the Agong’s birthday is a compulsory holiday that can’t be swapped out, so when Gawai Day 1 lands on it, the state grants a replacement. The result for 2026, per the state’s April announcement reported by The Star and DayakDaily:
- Sunday 31 May: Wesak Day
- Monday 1 June: Agong’s birthday and Gawai Dayak Day 1 (same day)
- Tuesday 2 June: Gawai Dayak Day 2
- Wednesday 3 June: replacement for Wesak Day (which fell on a Sunday)
- Thursday 4 June: replacement for Gawai Day 1 (which clashed with the Agong’s birthday)
For most office and government workers that’s a stretch from the weekend of May 30 through Thursday June 4, with normal work resuming Friday June 5. It’s a genuinely long break. It is also, if you need a government office in that window, a dead zone.
What’s actually closed on a Sarawak public holiday?
Not everything closes equally, and knowing the difference saves you a wasted trip.
Closed:
– Banks (branches; ATMs and online banking work as normal)
– Government offices: JPN, JPJ, immigration counters, LHDN, land office, the lot
– Public schools and most private schools
– Many clinics and government outpatient departments (hospital A&E stays open)
– Post offices
Usually open:
– Malls and supermarkets (often with slightly shorter hours)
– Hawker centres and most kopitiams, except during Gawai and Chinese New Year, when many close for days
– Grab, taxis, petrol stations
– Convenience stores
The two festivals that break the “malls stay open” rule are Gawai and Chinese New Year. During those, a lot of family-run stalls and shops genuinely shut, sometimes for the better part of a week, because the owners have gone back to the kampung or are hosting open houses. If you rely on a particular kolo mee stall, assume it’s closed over Gawai and plan your meals around the chains and food courts that stay open.
How do the holidays affect banks, offices, and schools?
Banks and government offices follow the gazetted Sarawak list, not the federal-only one. That matters for anyone dealing with immigration, road tax, or anything at a JPN or JPJ counter: you have to plan around the state calendar, not the dates your friends in KL are working.
Here’s the honest downside, and it’s the thing nobody mentions in the cheerful holiday roundups. The sheer number of holidays, clustered the way they are, makes getting official things done genuinely harder than in most of the country. Eighteen public holidays, several falling mid-week and several bunched into festive blocks, means there are long stretches where a government counter is either closed or operating with half its staff and a backlog. If your visa renewal, your road tax, or your bank appointment falls anywhere near early June, late March, or Chinese New Year, expect it to take longer, and expect the queue when offices reopen to be worse than usual. This is not a charming quirk you learn to love. It is a real friction cost of living here, and the only fix is to plan around it.
The moving Islamic dates add a second layer of annoyance. Hari Raya, Awal Muharram, and Maulidur Rasul are set by moon sighting, so the gazetted date can shift by a day, and occasionally the official confirmation comes late. For most years it’s fine, but if you’re booking flights or scheduling something tight around those dates, build in a day of slack.
Schools follow the public holiday calendar plus the separate school-term break schedule, which is set nationally and is not the same as the public holiday list. If you have kids at a Sarawak school, the term breaks are the dates that actually govern your year, and they don’t always line up with the public holidays.
How does Sarawak compare with Peninsular Malaysia?
Sarawak and Sabah get more public holidays than any Peninsular state. A worker in Selangor or Penang has a shorter list; they don’t get Good Friday, Gawai, Sarawak Day, or the Sarawak Governor’s birthday. The trade-off I didn’t think about until I lived with it: a national company with offices in both KL and Kuching has to run two different holiday calendars, and cross-state deadlines get awkward when one office is closed and the other isn’t. If you work remotely for a Peninsular or overseas employer, you’ll sometimes be the only person on a Sarawak holiday still expected at your desk, and sometimes the reverse.
Plan around it: a quick rule of thumb
If you need anything from a government counter or a bank in 2026, avoid the week of June 1, the Hari Raya stretch in late March, and the days bracketing Chinese New Year in mid-February. Go a week early or wait until the dust settles. For the official, always-current list, check the Sarawak state government portal at sarawak.gov.my before you commit to a date, since the moon-sighting holidays can still move.
My own signal that a holiday is coming isn’t the calendar. It’s the kolo mee stall I go to on Jalan Ban Hock putting up a handwritten “tutup” sign two days before Gawai. When that paper goes up, I know the next week belongs to the longhouse, not the office.
Keep exploring Kuching Insider: Gawai Dayak, Chinese New Year in Kuching, and the Rainforest World Music Festival.