Public Holidays That Affect Scheduling Across Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia has more public holidays per country, per year, than most regions — and because they’re spread across different religious and cultural calendars, a date that looks clear to you will often be a holiday somewhere in the region. This isn’t an edge case. If you’re scheduling regularly across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, you’ll hit this constantly.

The underlying reason is that the region spans Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Catholic majority populations, each with their own holiday calendar. Several of those calendars are lunar-based, which means the dates shift each year. You can’t memorise them — you have to check.

Key holidays to verify each year

Regional:

• Eid al-Fitr (Hari Raya Aidilfitri): Public holiday in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei. Officially 2–3 days, but surrounding days see reduced availability. Dates move roughly 10–11 days earlier each Gregorian year.
• Chinese New Year: Major holiday in Singapore, Malaysia, and for ethnic Chinese communities across the region. Late January or February, exact dates vary.

Country-specific:

• Thailand — Songkran (13–15 April): Thai New Year. A genuine nationwide shutdown. Don’t schedule with Thai contacts mid-April.
• Philippines — Holy Week: Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are official holidays; many businesses extend this to a full week.
• Indonesia: Nyepi (Balinese Hindu New Year, a day of near-complete silence and standstill), Waisak (Buddhist), independence day (17 August), plus all Islamic holidays.
• Singapore — National Day (9 August): Surrounding days are often taken as leave.

Before locking in any multi-country meeting across the region, check each country’s official holiday list for the current year. For Islamic and lunar holidays, look up the specific dates — don’t estimate from memory.

Use meetwhen to set up the working-hours overlap across your regional offices so you can see both the time zone alignment and identify which candidate dates have conflicts.