Every federal + state public holiday in 2026. Sorted by how few annual leave (AL) days you need per day off.
If you work in Malaysia, 2026 is the best AL year you'll see for a long time. The unusual proximity of Wesak Day, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's Birthday, and a Wesak replacement holiday creates a 4-day free stretch in late May (30 May – 2 Jun) that costs zero annual leave — and uniquely, you can extend it to 5 days with a single AL on either side. There are two more 4-day free stretches in March (Hari Raya) and February (Chinese New Year, with 1 AL), plus a 3-day free stretch in November (Deepavali). This page is the complete 2026 long weekend calendar for Malaysia, with every public holiday, every cluster, and a "best use of 14 AL days" strategy.
Set the AL slider to 14 (the Malaysian standard), pick 2026, and the optimizer ranks every possible long weekend combo by efficiency. Free, no sign-up, no email required.
Open calculator →A "free" long weekend is a contiguous block of non-working days — public holidays stacked against weekends — that requires zero AL to take. Here are the three longest in 2026, federal scope (every Malaysian state gets these):
| Date | Days | How It Stacks |
|---|---|---|
| 30 May – 2 Jun 2026 | 4 days | Sat 30 + Sun 31 May: weekend with Hari Wesak on Sunday 31. Mon 1 Jun: Agong's Birthday. Tue 2 Jun: Wesak replacement holiday (substitute for the Sunday). Headline stretch. Note Fri 29 May is a regular working day — add 1 AL on Fri 29 or Wed 3 Jun to extend this to a 5-day block. |
| 20 – 23 Mar 2026 | 4 days | Friday 20 + Saturday 21: Hari Raya Aidilfitri (both gazetted days). Sunday 22 + Monday 23: regular weekend. Dates depend on official moon-sighting gazette. |
| 7 – 9 Nov 2026 | 3 days | Deepavali falls on Sunday 8 Nov (Saturday 7 is a regular weekend day). Monday 9 Nov is the replacement holiday. Add 1 AL on Friday 6 Nov to turn this into a 4-day stretch (6 – 9 Nov). |
Of these, the May–June stretch is the headline — it's the only 2026 stretch you can extend to 5 days with a single AL on either side. Looking ahead to 2027 and 2028, you won't see another free stretch this long until 2030. So if you only plan one big trip in 2026, this is the window.
AL efficiency is the ratio of total days off to AL used. A 5× efficiency stretch is the best you can achieve in a single contiguous block in 2026: 1 day of leave for 5 consecutive days off. There are four such stretches — two bracketing the May–June Wesak/Agong cluster, one at Hari Raya, and the May–Jun cluster itself extends to 5 with 1 AL:
| Stretch | Total Days | AL Used | Apply Leave On | Efficiency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 May – 2 Jun 2026 | 5 days | 1 AL | Friday, 29 May 2026 | 5.0× |
| 30 May – 3 Jun 2026 | 5 days | 1 AL | Wednesday, 3 Jun 2026 | 5.0× |
| 19 – 23 Mar 2026 | 5 days | 1 AL | Thursday, 19 Mar 2026 | 5.0× |
| 14 – 18 Feb 2026 | 5 days | 1 AL | Monday, 16 Feb 2026 | 5.0× |
| 6 – 9 Nov 2026 | 4 days | 1 AL | Friday, 6 Nov 2026 | 4.0× |
Just 4 AL days gets you 20 days of contiguous time off across four separate breaks (the four 5.0× rows). The remaining 10–14 AL days in your 2026 quota are best deployed on the next tier of clusters — single-day bridges around Hari Merdeka (Mon 31 Aug), Malaysia Day (Wed 16 Sep), Awal Muharram (Wed 17 Jun), and Federal Territory Day (Sun 1 Feb if you work in KL/Putrajaya/Labuan). The optimizer ranks all of these automatically.
Most years in Malaysia offer a longest free stretch of 3 days (a single public holiday with a weekend sandwich). 2026 is unusual because three 3-day clusters exist that can be joined: Wesak, Agong's Birthday, and the replacement Wesak holiday fall within the same Mon–Tue window. This is a calendar coincidence, not a structural feature — it depends on the Agong's Birthday rotating date (first Monday of June) aligning with Wesak (the Sunday in late May) within a specific window.
Look at the next 5 years for comparison: 2026 has a 4-day free stretch (Wesak/Agong, extendable to 5 with 1 AL on either side) — the only year in this window where a single AL bridges to 5 days. 2027 tops out at 4 days (CNY in Feb, Hari Raya in Mar, Awal Muharram + Agong's Birthday in Jun, Prophet's Birthday in Aug). 2028 and 2029 also top out at 4 days. The next 5-day free stretch doesn't appear until 2030.
This is why 2026 deserves a heavier AL deployment than a normal year. If you're able to carry over unused 2025 AL into 2026 (many Malaysian companies allow this), this is the year to use it.
The federal-only calendar misses a large share of the long weekends available to most Malaysians. Every state has its own additional holidays — Sultan's/Yang di-Pertua Negeri's birthday, state cultural festivals, state-level replacement days. For 2026, the most impactful state additions are:
If you work in one of these states, enable your state in the calculator's state-holiday panel to see your personal 2026 calendar. The optimizer will add 1–4 extra long weekends to your list automatically.
The default Malaysian AL entitlement is 14 days (8 days for less than 2 years' service, scaling up to 16 or 18 days for longer service). The recommended strategy is layered:
The 14-AL plan gets you roughly 55–60 total days off in 2026 (including weekends), versus the ~31 days off you'd have with zero planning. The optimizer's "best use of 14 AL" suggestion is the most efficient combination it can find — usually ~3.5× return on average.
Source & accuracy: Data sourced from the official Prime Minister's Department gazette. Important: Islamic holiday dates (Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Hari Raya Haji, Maal Hijrah, Israk & Mikraj, Maulidur Rasul) are determined by moon sighting and may shift ±1–2 days from the preliminary schedule. Always verify the final gazetted dates at kabinet.gov.my before booking flights or hotels. This page is provided for informational purposes only — confirm all dates with your employer before applying for leave.
Every month of 2026 laid out with its best contiguous non-working stretch, how many AL days it costs, and the exact gazetted holidays it leans on. Dates below are verified against the official Prime Minister's Department gazette (JPA PDF HKA-2026) and the holidays.json dataset. State-only extras (Selangor, KL, Penang, East Malaysia) are flagged — enable your state in the calculator to fold them in automatically.
| Month | Best stretch | Days | AL | Holidays used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 1 Jan (Thu) standalone — or 31 Jan–2 Feb (Sat–Mon) in Thaipusam states | 1 / 3 | 0 AL | New Year's Day (Thu 1 Jan); Thaipusam Sun 1 Feb + substitute Mon 2 Feb (Selangor/KL/Putrajaya/N9/Perak/Penang/Johor only) |
| Feb | 14–18 Feb (Sat–Wed) | 5 | 1 AL (Mon 16) | Chinese New Year Tue 17 & Wed 18 Feb; bridge Mon 16 Feb with 1 AL to join the preceding weekend |
| Mar | 20–23 Mar (Fri–Mon) | 4 | 0 AL | Hari Raya Aidilfitri Sat 21 Mar + gazetted holidays Fri 20, Sun 22, Mon 23. +1 AL Thu 19 → 5 days |
| Apr | 3 Apr (Fri) Good Friday — Sabah/Sarawak only | 3 | 0 AL | No federal holidays in April. East Malaysians get Good Friday → 3-day weekend; peninsular employees get none |
| May | 30 May–2 Jun (Sat–Tue) | 4 | 0 AL | Wesak Day Sun 31 May + Agong's Birthday Mon 1 Jun + Wesak substitute Tue 2 Jun. Headline stretch. +1 AL Fri 29 May or Wed 3 Jun → 5 days |
| Jun | 17 Jun (Wed) Awal Muharram | 1 | 2 AL | Awal Muharram Wed 17 Jun is midweek; bridge Thu 18 + Fri 19 with 2 AL → 5-day (17–21 Jun) |
| Jul | State-only (Pahang 31 Jul, Sarawak Day 22 Jul, etc.) | varies | — | No federal holidays in July. State birthdays create local 3-day weekends (e.g. Pahang Fri 31 Jul) |
| Aug | 29–31 Aug (Sat–Mon) | 3 | 0 AL | Merdeka Day Mon 31 Aug. Prophet Muhammad's Birthday (Tue 25 Aug) is a separate midweek holiday — bridge Thu 27 + Fri 28 with 2 AL to join Merdeka weekend |
| Sep | 16 Sep (Wed) Malaysia Day | 1 | 2 AL | Malaysia Day Wed 16 Sep is midweek with no natural weekend anchor. Bridge Thu 17 + Fri 18 with 2 AL → 5-day (16–20 Sep) |
| Oct | No federal holidays | — | — | October has zero federal holidays in 2026. Quiet month — deploy block leave here if you want a non-peak trip |
| Nov | 7–9 Nov (Sat–Mon) | 3 | 0 AL | Deepavali Sun 8 Nov + substitute Mon 9 Nov. +1 AL Fri 6 Nov → 4 days. Perak employees also get Sultan of Perak's Birthday Fri 6 Nov (state) |
| Dec | 25–27 Dec (Fri–Sun) | 3 | 0 AL | Christmas Day Fri 25 Dec → 3-day weekend. Selangor employees add Sultan of Selangor's Birthday Fri 11 Dec → 3-day (11–13 Dec), +1 AL Mon 14 → 4-day |
Reading the table top to bottom, three patterns emerge. First, May is the single best month of 2026: the Wesak/Agong/Wesak-substitute alignment is the only place in the year where a 0-AL stretch reaches 4 days and is flanked by two working days (Fri 29 May, Wed 3 Jun) that each convert it to a 5-day stretch with a single AL. No other month offers this two-sided extension.
Second, March and November are the runners-up. March's Hari Raya cluster (Fri 20 – Mon 23) is a clean 4-day free stretch, and a single AL on Thu 19 Mar extends it to 5. November's Deepavali cluster is shorter at the federal level (3 days, Sat 7 – Mon 9) because Deepavali falls on a Sunday rather than a Saturday — but the single AL on Fri 6 Nov still yields a 4-day block at 4.0× efficiency. If you work in Perak, the Sultan of Perak's Birthday on Fri 6 Nov makes that same Friday a free day, turning the whole 7–9 Nov stretch into a 4-day free stretch with zero AL.
Third, September and June are the "bridge months". Both Awal Muharram (Wed 17 Jun) and Malaysia Day (Wed 16 Sep) fall midweek in 2026 with no adjacent weekend, so they cost 2 AL to convert into 5-day stretches (3.0× efficiency). These are worth it if you've already spent your four 5× slots and have AL left over, but they're a lower priority than the May/Mar/Nov clusters.
Finally, January, April, July and October are thin months federally. January's only federal holiday is New Year's Day (Thu 1 Jan) — a single day. April, July and October contain zero federal holidays in 2026. This is where state holidays matter most: Thaipusam (early Feb, counted under January's tail end) rescues the Jan–Feb boundary for Selangor/KL/Perak/Penang/Johor/N9 employees, and East Malaysian Good Friday (3 Apr) rescues April for Sabah/Sarawak. If you live in a state with few state holidays (e.g. Kedah, Kelantan), expect a quieter calendar in these months and plan block leave accordingly.
The month-by-month view is exactly what the long weekend calculator automates: it walks every month, finds every cluster for your selected state, ranks them by efficiency, and tells you precisely which dates to apply leave on. Use this table as the manual reference and the calculator as the interactive planner.