Holiday Mobility Law 139-97 gives the Ministry of Labor the authority to move important holidays around so as not to interrupt the workweek. The information is good to know to plan vacation time.
For 2022 there are very few long weekends as many holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday. For instance, New Year’s Day falls on a Saturday. Christmas Day falls on a Sunday in 2022. The good news, though is that Three Kings Day (January 6) falls on a Thursday, so it will be celebrated on Monday, 10 January.
The longest weekend of the year comes barely two weeks later when the Our Lady of High Grace, the Patroness of the Dominican Republic celebration, falls on Friday, 24 January, and as a religious feast day, it will not be moved. This creates a four-day weekend holiday when La Altagracia Day is to be followed right after by another national holiday. The birthday of Juan Pablo Duarte, the principal founding father of the Dominican Republic, falls on Wednesday, 26 January, and will be pushed back to Monday, 24 January, making for the four-day weekend.
Holidays such as 27 February, the Dominican Independence Day, as well as Good Friday (15 April), Corpus Cristi (Thursday, 16 June), Restoration Day (Tuesday, 16 August), Our Lady of Mercy (Saturday, 24 September), and Constitution Day (Sunday, 6 November) will not be moved.
Curiously, Labor Day (Sunday, 1 May in the Dominican Republic), falls on a Sunday, but the Ministry of Labor orders that it be celebrated on Monday, 2 May.
Check on the local holidays at the Ministry of Labor
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
1 November 2021