The 2027 public holiday schedule is already published, and it is worth looking at now rather than in December, because the pattern it sets decides how much leave you need to book.
Everything below is read off the Jadual Hari Kelepasan Am 2027, the PDF published by the Cabinet, Constitution and Inter-Government Relations Division (Bahagian Kabinet, Perlembagaan dan Perhubungan Antara Kerajaan, or BKPP) of the Prime Minister's Department in Putrajaya. BKPP is the office that issues the national list, and its holidays page was last updated on 2 September 2026. We read all 52 dated rows on 12 September 2026.
The headline: six federal holidays fall on a weekend
There are fifteen federal holiday dates in 2027. Six of them land on a Saturday or a Sunday:
- Chinese New Year, Saturday 6 February
- Chinese New Year second day, Sunday 7 February
- Labour Day, Saturday 1 May
- Awal Muharam (Maal Hijrah), Sunday 6 June
- Maulidur Rasul, Sunday 15 August
- Christmas Day, Saturday 25 December
That is the worst kind of year for a calendar-watcher: both days of Chinese New Year gone in one weekend, and Christmas gone too.
Which of those six actually gives you a day back
This is where most holiday lists stop and where the useful part starts.
Under section 60D of the Employment Act 1955, an employee covered by the Act is entitled to at least eleven gazetted public holidays a year, five of which are fixed: National Day, the Birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Birthday of the Ruler or Yang di-Pertua Negeri (or Federal Territory Day), Labour Day and Malaysia Day. The same section provides that where a gazetted public holiday falls on a rest day, the following working day becomes a paid holiday in substitution.
The operative words are "rest day". For most people on a Monday-to-Friday week, the contractual rest day is Sunday, and Saturday is an off day, which is not the same thing. So of the six weekend clashes in 2027:
- 7 February, 6 June and 15 August are Sundays. Expect a substitute holiday on the Monday that follows: 8 February, 7 June and 16 August.
- 6 February, 1 May and 25 December are Saturdays. For a five-day week, nothing is usually owed.
Two caveats worth checking in your own contract. Some employers name Saturday rather than Sunday as the rest day, which reverses the result. And Monday 7 June is already the Agong's Birthday, so the substitution for Sunday 6 June rolls to the next working day after that.
The three states where the result flips
Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu run a Sunday-to-Thursday working week, with the weekend on Friday and Saturday. We confirmed this pattern from federal law earlier this month while reading the Tourism Tax (Amendment) Regulations 2026, which still place those three states on the Sunday-to-Thursday office schedule after Johor moved off it.
For those three states the 2027 arithmetic inverts. The three Saturday holidays (6 February, 1 May, 25 December) sit inside their weekend. The three Sunday holidays (7 February, 6 June, 15 August) fall on working days and are straightforwardly days off, with no substitution needed.
Who gets the most holidays in 2027
Counting every dated row in the schedule that applies to a state:
- Terengganu: 21
- Sabah: 20
- Labuan, Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Penang, Sarawak: 19
- Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Johor, Melaka, Pahang, Perak, Selangor: 18
Terengganu tops the list because it picks up Israk and Mikraj twice, Hari Arafah, the second day of Chinese New Year as a state holiday, the Sultan's birthday on 26 April and the coronation anniversary on 4 March.
A quirk worth knowing: Israk and Mikraj appears twice in 2027, on 6 January and again on 26 December, because the Hijri date lands twice inside the same Gregorian year. Both dates are holidays in Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis and Terengganu, and 26 December falls on a Sunday.
Two other lines are unique to one place. Sarawak is the only state that does not observe Deepavali on 28 October. Sabah is the only place with Christmas Eve, 24 December, as a holiday, which with Christmas on the Saturday gives Sabahans a Friday off.
Where to spend your annual leave
The bridges worth planning around, in order of value:
- Hari Raya Puasa, Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 March. One day of leave on Friday 12 March gives you Wednesday to Sunday. In Melaka that Friday is already the third day of Raya and a state holiday, so Melakans get five days for nothing.
- Hari Malaysia, Thursday 16 September. One day on Friday 17 September buys four days.
- Deepavali, Thursday 28 October. One day on Friday 29 October buys four days, everywhere except Sarawak.
- Wesak, Thursday 20 May. One day on Friday 21 May buys four days.
- National Day, Tuesday 31 August. One day on Monday 30 August buys four days.
- Hari Raya Qurban, Monday 17 May, is a free three-day weekend, and in Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu the second day on Tuesday 18 May makes it four.
- Thaipusam, Friday 22 January, is a three-day weekend in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Penang and Selangor.
- New Year's Day, Friday 1 January, is a three-day weekend in the eleven states and territories that observe it. Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu do not.
Four dates that can still move
The schedule marks Hari Raya Puasa, Hari Raya Qurban, Awal Ramadan and Deepavali with an asterisk and the note *"Tertakluk kepada perubahan"*, subject to change. Those depend on moon sighting or the Hindu calendar and are confirmed closer to the date, so treat 10 March, 17 May and 28 October as very likely rather than settled before you buy a non-refundable flight.
The 2027 school calendar is still missing
Parents planning around both calendars have only half the information. The Education Ministry announced on 28 October 2025 that the 2027 school session starts on 4 January 2027 for every state at once, ending the old split between Group A (Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu) and Group B. But the full Kalendar Akademik Sesi 2027 is still not on the ministry's own download page: on 12 September 2026 that page listed only the 2026 session and three older ones, and BKPP's own school-calendar section stopped at 2026 as well. Until it appears, the term-break dates for 2027 are not public.
Related reads
- Working on Malaysia Day 2026: what your payslip should say: the pay rules when you do work a gazetted holiday.
- Public holidays left in Malaysia in 2026: what is still to come this year.
- School holidays and term dates in Malaysia 2026: the calendar that 2027 has yet to match.
*Cover image: the federal page of the Jadual Hari Kelepasan Am 2027 (Image: Bahagian Kabinet, Perlembagaan dan Perhubungan Antara Kerajaan, Jabatan Perdana Menteri)*
*All dates read from the BKPP schedule on 12 September 2026. State governments can still declare additional or ad hoc holidays during the year.*
