When one is traveling, time seems to flow differently: it may not matter if it’s Monday, Thursday, or any other day of the week. However, in some cases, it can influence the schedule and activities to be carried out, either because establishments close or because there’s a celebration worth experiencing. Therefore, in this post, we’ll tell you what the public holidays in Morocco are and what is considered a weekend in this country.
Public holidays in Morocco
Public holidays in Morocco are those days when people don’t work, and there are more than a dozen per year. They are mainly of two types: religious holidays and general holidays, which usually commemorate a political or nationalist event.
Religious holidays
Religious holidays are common to other Muslim countries and are celebrated on dates marked by the Muslim calendar, which is lunar. Because the months in this calendar are shorter (about 28 days), these holidays fall on different days each year. Taking the year of writing this post (2025) as a reference, they are as follows:
- Eid Al Adha: June 6, 2025. Feast of the Sacrifice
- Islamic New Year: June 12, 2025
- Eid Al Mawlid: September 15, 2025. Birthday of the Prophet Muhammad
General holidays
The rest of the holidays in Morocco have a political or nationalist component. They refer to the Western calendar, that is, the Christian or Gregorian calendar. Therefore, they fall on the same date every year. They are as follows:
- New Year: January 1
- Anniversary of the Independence Manifesto: January 11
- Labor Day: May 1
- Throne Day or Coronation Day: July 30
- Oued Eddahab Allegiance Day: August 14
- Revolution of the King and the People Day: August 20. Interestingly, it coincides with King Mohammed VI’s birthday, which reinforced the festive nature of the day and was an occasion for granting pardons. However, since 2019, it’s only considered a holiday for the aforementioned Revolution of the King and the People, by decision of the monarch himself
- Youth Day: August 21
- Green March Day: November 6
- Independence Day: November 18
In addition to all these days, both religious and general, there are other regional holidays, thus increasing the number of rest days per year.
When is the weekend in Morocco?
Another interesting and useful aspect to know is when the weekend is considered in Morocco, as this affects the opening hours of shops, banks, administrative offices, and other establishments.
Well, unlike other Muslim countries that consider Friday as a mandatory rest day (and therefore favor a Friday-Saturday weekend), Morocco has greater flexibility in this regard. In fact, Friday, despite being the day of mandatory prayer in the mosque, is not officially considered a rest day. And most commonly, the weekend is Saturday-Sunday, which implies work rest and the closure of some businesses.
However, the schedules that most directly affect tourists, such as those of museums and monuments, are usually not affected by this weekly rest, being open and fully operational during the weekend. The same is true for craft souks in the medina, which remain open every day of the week, with the possible exception of Friday at prayer time or even after that moment.
