Is Malaysia Really
Always on Holiday?

Holidays fall from the sky

A sultan is the ruler of a state. Nine Malaysian states have a sultan or a king of their own. The Sultan of Selangor came to the throne in 2001. Twenty-five years on: congratulations. And because it calls for congratulations, the whole state gets the day off.

This is not Selangor’s first surprise of the year. 1 September was a holiday too, to celebrate Selangor winning the overall title at Sukma, the national sports games. Win sports day, get a day off. Any primary-school child would weep with joy at such a system, but this one is run by a state government. Strictly speaking, the holiday was for state civil servants; private companies could decide for themselves. So until you phone a client, you have no idea whether they are at work. Malaysian holidays occasionally turn into a detective game.

In March, the Friday before Hari Raya was added as a national holiday. Count it up, and Selangor gained three holidays in the middle of this year. Anyone who imports the public holidays into Google Calendar in January and relaxes will lose in this country. The holidays add themselves later. Best to enter everything as “tentative”.

A multi-faith country has multi-faith holidays

Malaysia’s holiday list reads like a trade fair of religions. For Muslims, Hari Raya at the end of the fasting month, Hari Raya Haji for the festival of sacrifice, and the Prophet’s birthday. For the Chinese, Chinese New Year. For Hindus, Deepavali. For Buddhists, Wesak. For Christians, Christmas. Add National Day, Malaysia Day, the King’s birthday and each state ruler’s birthday.

Malays, Chinese and Indians: each community’s most important day becomes a day off for everyone. When you think about it, it is a very peaceful arrangement. Someone’s festival is everyone’s holiday. I know of few peoples so sincerely grateful for other people’s religious holidays.

On top of that, holidays differ by state. Thaipusam, the Hindu festival, is a holiday in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, but not everywhere. Even the weekend differs. In Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, the weekend is Friday and Saturday, and Sunday is a working day, so a Sunday holiday gets no Monday in lieu there. Within one country, the Monday-morning mood changes at the state border.

I counted. Malaysia came third

So is it really always on holiday? I counted. The measure is weekday holidays in 2026. A holiday that falls on a weekend is a day off anyway, so it does not count. Substitute and ad hoc holidays do. I compared seven countries: six in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore) and Japan, all counted the same way.

Malaysia (Selangor) came third of seven, with 19 days. First was Indonesia with 21, thanks to the government’s collective leave days (cuti bersama). Second was Thailand with 20. The country I thought was always on holiday is the bronze medallist of holidays. On the podium, yes. Gold, no.

The interesting one is Japan: 17 days. Just two days behind Malaysia. Japan has 16 national holidays in 2026, and this September even the Tuesday sandwiched between Respect for the Aged Day and the autumn equinox became a holiday, making a five-day “Silver Week”. Before Japanese people grumble that Malaysia is always on holiday, they should check the calendar on their own smartphone. I checked mine. I was in no position to talk.

The fewest, by the way: Singapore, with 10. I say this with love, as someone who lived there for many years. That country is efficient even about holidays.

Two days of holiday, two weeks of holiday mood

Then why does it feel like holidays all the time? Not because of the number of holidays, but because of their length. The public holiday may be two days, but the town’s “holiday mood” lasts many times longer.

Chinese New Year is a good example. This year it fell on 17 and 18 February: two public holidays. But the Ministry of Education added three more days for schools. With the weekends, public schools in Selangor and elsewhere had nine days off, from 14 to 22 February. And the extra days do not have to be made up later. A day off is simply a day off.

The town takes even longer. Chinese shops and factories close for about a week. Suppliers stop. The shutter of my usual shop carries a red notice with a reopening date, which is often further away than I hoped. Shopping malls play New Year songs on a loop, and before long I am humming along. Until Chap Goh Mei, the fifteenth day, the New Year air lingers. By my feel, that is two weeks of holiday mood.

This year, the fasting month of Ramadan began almost at the same time as Chinese New Year. The Chinese were on holiday for New Year; Muslims began their fast. Two great occasions, back to back.

Hari Raya runs longer still. During the fasting month, the pace of work slows a little. In the late afternoon, Ramadan bazaars spring up everywhere, lined with food for breaking the fast after sunset. Even I, who am not fasting, somehow start to feel hungry around then.

Then Hari Raya itself. This year it fell on 21 and 22 March, a Saturday and Sunday. In exchange, the Friday became an extra holiday and the Monday a substitute: a four-day weekend for adults.

Schools go further. Public schools in Selangor and elsewhere already had extra ministry holidays on the 19th and 20th. Then, on 10 March, the 18th was added too. The term break followed from the 21st to the 29th. In total: twelve days off, from 18 to 29 March. For a family with primary-school children, that “extended later” is what hurts most.

Everyone heads back to their home town: balik kampung, in Malay. The highways jam, and Kuala Lumpur empties. The easiest week of the year to drive in.

After Hari Raya, open houses, where homes and offices open their doors to celebrate, carry on for about a month. Jars of Raya cookies appear on desks everywhere. Counting from the start of Ramadan, the holiday mood lasts about two months.

As a chart, it looks like this. Long bars of school breaks and town mood grow out of the short bars of public holidays. That gap is the true identity of “always on holiday”.

Led around by two primary-school children

In my case, there is another reason the holidays feel longer. I have two children in primary school. At every festival, school closes. When school closes, the whole family schedule moves. I rearrange business trips and shift meetings back and forth. More than the list of public holidays, the school calendar decides my year.

While I was at it, I counted how many days a year schools take off. Just 365 minus the number of school days: the simplest possible calculation.

Malaysian and Japanese public schools turned out to be almost the same. They close for every festival, yet over a year the books balance. It is not that there are more holidays; the holidays come in clumps.

The international schools took the most days off, more than three weeks more than Japanese public schools. When I drew a line at half a year, only the international schools’ bars crossed it. They spend more days of the year not at school than at school. International schools do not take every Malaysian holiday: at the American-style ISKL, Thaipusam and Wesak are normal school days. Instead, the summer break runs for almost two months. My children go to an international school too. No wonder their father’s Google Calendar is full of “tentative” entries.

The children, told that the holiday has been extended, are delighted without asking why. I ask why, then open Google Calendar and move my business trips around. The same news splits the household neatly in two.

Another quiet blow: the shops close too. At Chinese New Year, my usual noodle shop is shut. At Hari Raya, the man at my usual stall has gone back to his kampung. The more holiday it is, the more I want to eat out; the more holiday it is, the fewer places are open. Finding somewhere open for lunch on a public holiday is a small treasure hunt.

With this many school holidays, you might expect a parent to worry. I do not, much. To me, learning in Malaysia is not a matter of relying on school.

Go out into the town and join the festivals. Live among many languages and many religions. Learn to forgive people who are different from you. Learn to laugh off things that do not go by the rules. Learn to make friends with anyone. What the classroom does not teach, this country teaches on its holidays.

So coming to Malaysia only to learn English is, I think, a bit of a waste. Yes, the English comes too. But it is more of a free gift. I would like to write about this properly next time.

A business view

Given my line of work, here are three lessons.

First, look at the school calendar, not just the holiday list. On holidays alone, Malaysia and Japan differ by only two days. But school and town breaks run many times longer than the public holidays. If your staff live with their families, leave requests will follow the school calendar. Any company employing people in Malaysia should pin the Ministry of Education’s calendar on the wall next to the holiday list.

Second, every state has its own calendar. Holidays differ by state, and so do weekends. For a company with offices or clients in several states, it is perfectly normal for one state to be open while the next is closed. Deadlines have to be counted on the other side’s calendar.

Third, budget for ad hoc holidays from the start. As in Selangor this year, three holidays can appear mid-year. Leave a little slack in the schedule. Conversely, the run-up to Chinese New Year and Hari Raya is the busiest selling season of the year. In a country with many holidays, the days before the holidays are when business is made.

Gaspard’s Holiday

In Roman Holiday, the princess slips away from her official duties to enjoy a single day off. Malaysia is the other way round: to celebrate the ruler, the people get the day off. The ruler on duty, the people on holiday. A far more peaceful script.

The film also has the Mouth of Truth, which bites the hand of a liar. I would like one for Malaysia: put your hand in, and it honestly tells you every ad hoc holiday coming next year.

Next month is Deepavali. This year it falls on Sunday 8 November, so Monday is a holiday in lieu. Public schools in Selangor and elsewhere also get the Tuesday off, courtesy of the ministry. The children have already circled it on the wall calendar. I have put it in Google Calendar too. As “tentative”, of course.

At the end of the film, at a press conference, the princess is asked which city she enjoyed most. She does not hesitate: Rome. If anyone asks me which country has the most holidays, I will not hesitate either. By the count it came third, but by feel it is first by a mile. Malaysia. By all means, Malaysia.