Singapore Public Holidays 2020 — How to Maximise All 7 Long Weekends in 2020

Singaporeans love staying on top of public holidays, not just because we’re a harmonious multi-ethnic society, but also because most of our annual leave entitlements are pretty crappy and we want to make full use of them.

Fortunately, 2020 is shaping up to be a very good year, public holidays-wise. We’re getting 7 long weekends in 2020, which totally makes up for the pathetic 3 long weekends we got in 2019.

Not only that, but it’s also possible to squeeze out at least 3 or 4 few week-long breaks with minimal use of your annual leave. Let’s dive into the complete list of Singapore public holidays in 2020, and how to maximise them.

 

Singapore public holidays 2020 — 7 long weekends!

Public holiday 2020	Date	Day
New Year’s Day	1 Jan 2020	Wednesday
Chinese New Year	25 Jan 2020 + 27 Jan 2020*	Saturday, Monday
Good Friday	10 Apr 2020	Friday
Labour Day	1 May 2020	Friday
Vesak Day	7 May 2020	Thursday
Hari Raya Puasa	25 May 2020*	Monday
Hari Raya Haji	31 July 2020	Friday
National Day	10 Aug 2020*	Monday
Deepavali	14 Nov 2020	Saturday
Christmas Day	25 Dec 2020	Friday

* CNY day 2, Hari Raya Puasa and National Day are all gazetted holidays. The actual public holiday falls on Sunday, but we get the Monday off.

Also, note that 2 out of the 11 PHs fall on Saturdays. Don’t worry though, your employer should give you a day off-in-lieu for those.

 

How to make full use of the public holidays in 2020

So what does all this mean for your travel plans!? Well, apart from the 7 long weekends, there are also 4 key periods that are best for taking “long” leave (at least a week)…

Public holidays	Holiday period	Annual leave needed
Chinese New Year	Sat 25 Jan — Sun 2 Feb 2020 (9 days)	3 days + 1 off-in-lieu
Labour Day + Vesak Day	Fri 1 May — Sun 10 May 2020 (10 days)	4 days
Hari Raya Haji + National Day	Fri 31 Jul — Mon 10 Aug 2020 (11 days)	5 days
Christmas + New Year’s Day	Fri 25 Dec 2020 — Sun 3 Jan 2021 (10 days)	4 days
TOTAL	40 days	16 days

… So that’s 4 decently long breaks with 16 days of annual leave. Not too bad at all.

If you don’t have enough annual leave, you can still enjoy 3 long holidays with 11 or 12 days. Even if you have the bare minimum of 7 days, it’s possible to finagle 2 long breaks. Hooray!!!

 

Public holidays Dec 2019: Christmas + New Year’s Day (8 days with annual leave)

OK, so this is not really counted as part of the 2020 holiday allotment, but since New Year’s Day falls on 1 Jan 2020, I’ll cover it.

As everybody knows, the Christmas and New Year’s Day public holidays fall exactly on the same day, 1 week apart. In 2019, Christmas falls on a Wednesday, and so does New Year’s 2020:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
23 Dec	24 Dec	25 Dec (PH)	26 Dec	27 Dec	28 Dec	29 Dec
30 Dec	31 Dec	1 Jan (PH)	2 Jan	3 Jan	4 Jan	5 Jan

There are no long weekends here, so to make both public holidays vacation-worthy, take 4 days’ leave on:

• Thu 26 Dec
• Fri 27 Dec
• Mon 30 Dec
• Tue 31 Dec

This gives you 8 uninterrupted days of leave, which is enough for a nice long holiday overseas.

Bear in mind that travelling tends to be pretty expensive during this period, since it’s peak holiday season in Singapore. However, I’ve noticed that air fares on 31 Dec / 1 Jan are sometimes unusually low, perhaps because no one wants to count down in mid-air. (How do you even know what the time is?)

 

Public holidays Jan 2020: Chinese New Year (9 days with annual leave)

Thanks to Chinese privilege, CNY is the only holiday in Singapore that gets not 1 but 2 public holidays.

In 2020, Chinese New Year day 1 falls on Saturday 25 Jan, which makes that the public holiday. Since CNY day 2 falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is a gazetted make-up public holiday, resulting in a 3-day long weekend:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
20 Jan	21 Jan	22 Jan	23 Jan	24 Jan	25 Jan (PH)	26 Jan
27 Jan (PH)	28 Jan	29 Jan	30 Jan	31 Jan	1 Feb	2 Feb

But wait! Like that we rugi the Saturday, right??

Don’t panic if you work in a typical Monday to Friday job. Actually, it’s an MOM requirement for employers to “return” you the public holiday if Saturday is a non-working day for you.

MOM requires employers to either give you extra day’s pay (hah, fat chance of that) or a day off-in-lieu, sometimes abbreviated as “OIL”, which you can take after the holiday.

If you want to take a long holiday this Chinese New Year, you can totally use your OIL the following day and take the next 3 days off.

• (OIL: Tue 28 Jan)
• Wed 29 Jan
• Thu 30 Jan
• Fri 31 Jan 

That’s 9 days of no work for the low, low price of 3 annual leave days! Worth it right? So actually, public holiday on a Saturday is a good thing.

 

Public holidays Apr 2020: Good Friday (long weekend)

The Christian holiday Good Friday always falls on the Friday (duh) before Easter Sunday, which varies from year to year but is usually in April. (There is no PH for Easter, only for Good Friday.)

This time round, Good Friday public holiday falls on Fri 10 Apr 2020, making it the 2nd long weekend of the year.

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
6 Apr	7 Apr	8 Apr	9 Apr	10 Apr (PH)	11 Apr	12 Apr

 

Public holidays May 2020: Labour Day + Vesak Day (10 days with annual leave)

After Chinese New Year, the next “public holiday season” falls in May, thanks to Labour Day (1 May) and Vesak Day (7 May) being mere days apart in 2020:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
27 Apr	28 Apr	29 Apr	30 Apr	1 May (PH)	2 May	3 May
4 May	5 May	6 May	7 May (PH)	8 May	9 May	10 May

Labour Day falls on a Friday, while Vesak Day is on the following Thursday. Although slightly disappointing that we can’t get 2 long weekends back-to-back, we predict that tons of Singaporeans will be taking the entire Vesak Day week off unless they have religious commitments.

To get a whopping 10 days’ break, you need only take 4 days’ annual leave on:

• Mon 4 May
• Tue 5 May
• Wed 6 May
• Fri 8 May

The best part is that the May break comes before the (local) June school holidays and (international) summer break, so travelling should be quite affordable during this time compared to peak periods like Chinese New Year and Christmas — as well as more peaceful.

However, note that this period falls smack in the middle of Ramadan (23 Apr to 23 May).

 

Public holidays May 2020: Hari Raya Puasa (long weekend)

I am already looking forward to May 2020, because there are not 2, but 3(!!) public holidays in the same month. Yes, right after the killer Labour Day + Vesak Day combo comes another long weekend thanks to Hari Raya Puasa.

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
18 May	19 May	20 May	21 May	22 May	23 May	24 May
25 May (PH)	26 May	27 May	28 May	29 May	30 May	31 May

In 2020, Hari Raya Puasa falls on a Sunday, so we get the following Monday off.

 

Public holidays Aug 2020: Hari Raya Haji + National Day (11 days with annual leave)

After Hari Raya Puasa, there’s sadly going to be a dry spell from June all the way to July. The next holiday season is in August, with Hari Raya Haji (31 Jul) and National Day (9 Aug, make-up PH is on 10 Aug) only about a week apart from one another:

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
27 Jul	28 Jul	29 Jul	30 Jul	31 Jul (PH)	1 Aug	2 Aug
3 Aug	4 Aug	5 Aug	6 Aug	7 Aug	8 Aug	9 Aug
10 Aug (PH)	11 Aug	12 Aug	13 Aug	14 Aug	15 Aug	16 Aug

Yes, that’s 2 long weekends back-to-back!

If you’re not celebrating either holiday, you could also take the week between the 2 public holidays off to block out a super-long 11 days of travelling.

• Mon 3 Aug
• Tue 4 Aug
• Wed 5 Aug
• Thu 6 Aug
• Fri 7 Aug

But since it “costs” 5 annual leave days, it’s the most expensive of the possible long breaks in 2020.

 

Public holidays Nov 2020: Deepavali (long weekend with off-in-lieu)

After August 2020, we have to contend with another dry spell from September through October. In November, we will finally get relief in the form of Deepavali, which falls on a Saturday…

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
9 Nov	10 Nov	11 Nov	12 Nov	13 Nov	14 Nov (PH)	15 Nov

Again, as with the Chinese New Year public holiday, don’t worry about “losing out” on your public holiday entitlement. If you don’t work on Saturdays, your employer is supposed to give you a day off-in-lieu.

If you use your OIL day on the following Monday, you can make it a long weekend.

 

Public holidays Dec 2020: Christmas + New Year’s Day (10 days with annual leave)

Finally, we come full circle back to Christmas 2020 and New Year 2021. In 2020, both public holidays fall on Fridays. You know what this means — 2 back-to-back long weekends.

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
21 Dec	22 Dec	23 Dec	24 Dec	25 Dec (PH)	26 Dec	27 Dec
28 Dec	29 Dec	30 Dec	31 Dec	1 Jan (PH)	2 Jan	3 Jan

If you’re planning a year-end trip, the 2020 Christmas break is actually better than the 2019 one. That’s because 4 days’ leave will net you 10 whole days of travel. That’s what we call a long holiday:

• Mon 28 Dec
• Tue 29 Dec
• Wed 30 Dec
• Thu 31 Dec

That’s super worth it, considering that doing the same in 2019 will get you only 8 days of leave (because no long weekends).

Again, the same caveats for travelling during the year-end peak period apply — it’s just an expensive time to travel in general. But if you plan and book early, you might be able to benefit from early bird fares.

Before you travel, remember to compare Singapore’s travel insurance promotions to find the best coverage that suits you. Which holidays are you looking forward to in 2020? Tell us in the comments.