Sierra Leone Public Holidays
Discover upcoming public holiday dates for Sierra Leone and start planning to make the most of your time off.
Sierra Leone celebrates 10 national holidays each year, most of which are religious based celebrations. Many of the holiday celebrations in Sierra Leon occur on different dates each year due to the way their celebration dates are calculated.
National holidays in Sierra Leone are non-working days only. National laws do not require that employers provide any type of payment to their employees for these dates. Companies reserve the right to offer paid national holidays as part of their benefits package. In many cases, paid holidays are only enjoyed by people who work directly for the government or for an international employer.
Employers are required to provide the day off for employees, and if the employee is required to work due to the nature of their job, they are given a day off in lieu of the holiday. There is no documentation stating whether businesses are required to close on the national holidays.
The government reserves the right to establish one-time national holidays. This has been used in the past for election days and to help combat outbreaks of disease. In 2014, Sierra Leone established a 3 day mandatory national holiday to quarantine the country during the Ebola outbreak.