Public holidays in Ghana explained

There are approximately thirteen nationally recognized public holidays in Ghana, a sub-Saharan country in Africa. The primary National holiday is Independence Day, which is on 6 March. It is a National Day and is set to honor the memory of Ghana's independence from the United Kingdom in 1957.^[1]

This is a list of public holidays in Ghana.

National holidays

Date	English name	Description
1 January	New Year's Day
7 January	Constitution Day	Constitution of 1992 and Fourth Republic 1993.^[2]
6 March	Independence Day	Dominion of Ghana established within the Commonwealth of Nations in 1957.
	Good Friday	Crucifixion of Jesus
Monday after Easter	Easter Monday
1 May	May Day	Worker's Day
1 Shawwal	Eid al-Fitr	Festival of Breaking the Fast
10 Dhu al-Hijjah	Eid al-Adha	Feast of the Sacrifice
4 August	Founders' Day	Honors The Big Six who worked for Ghana's independence.^[3]
21 September	Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day	Birthday of Nkrumah, first prime minister (1957-1960) and first president (1960-1966) of Ghana
First Friday in December	Farmers' Day	Recognizes farmers and fishermen.^[4]
25 December	Christmas Day	Birth of Jesus
26 December	Boxing Day

Notes

1. Introduced by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, National Farmers' Day was organized as a day’s activity for the nation to honor its hard working farmers, with certificates and prizes, who excelled in their contributions to improve the agricultural sector. In 1988, the first Friday of every December was designated by the government as Farmers' Day and is celebrated as a statutory Public Holiday.^{[5] [6]}
2. With the exception of Farmers' Day which is always on a Friday, when these dates fall at the weekend, the following Monday tends to be declared a holiday.
3. Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day is celebrated in commemoration of the birthday of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana.^[7]
4. Constitution Day is a relatively newly designated Public Holiday, which was initially observed on 7 January 2019.^[8]

It is not mandatory that all Ghanaian institutions/organizations recognize public holidays. Institutions/organizations that are exempt include The Ghana National Fire Service, food vendors, some category of hotels, health service providers such as hospitals, dealers in pharmaceutical products etc.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Independence Day in Ghana in 2022. 2022-02-19. Office Holidays. en.
2. Web site: Constitution Day in Ghana in 2021 . Office Holidays . August 23, 2020 . en.
3. Web site: Public holidays in Ghana in 2021 . Calendarific . December 11, 2020 . en.
4. Web site: Farmers' Day 2020, 2021 and 2022 in Ghana . PublicHolidays.africa . August 23, 2020.
5. Web site: Farmers' Day 2020, 2021 and 2022 in Ghana. 2020-08-05. PublicHolidays.africa. en-US.
6. Web site: Farmer's Day in Ghana in 2020. 2020-08-05. Office Holidays. en.
7. Web site: Today remains Founder's Day - Mahama. www.ghanaweb.com. en. 2019-01-20.
8. Web site: Holidays in Ghana 2019. goldchestgh.com. en-US. 2019-01-20.