India Post Holiday List 2026: Full Gazetted & Restricted Calendar

What Is the Difference Between Gazetted and Restricted Holidays?

India Post, operating under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications, observes two categories of holidays each year:

• Gazetted holidays — Gazetted holidays are holidays declared by the Central Government. On these days, all post offices across India remain closed; services such as Speed ​​Post booking, parcel booking, savings bank facilities, and other counter services are unavailable.
• Restricted holidays — Optional holidays are associated with specific festivals or local traditions. These holidays may vary from state to state or region to region; consequently, while a post office might be closed in one state, it could remain open as usual in another.

Weekly Closure Days

On top of calendar holidays, post offices follow a fixed weekly closure pattern that applies nationwide, every year, without a separate notification:

• Every Sunday — fully closed, no counter services or deliveries.
• 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month — treated as an official holiday.
• 1st, 3rd, and 5th Saturdays — working days, though smaller branch offices sometimes run shorter hours.

Full 2026 Gazetted Holiday List

These 15 dates are mandatory closures for every India Post office nationwide in 2026:

Dates for Id-ul-Fitr, Bakrid, Muharram, and Milad-un-Nabi are provisional pending moon sighting.

Major Restricted Holidays (2026)

These vary from state to state; consequently, post offices may be closed in some places while remaining operational in others. A list of optional holidays for 2026 is provided below. Please note that post offices in your area do not necessarily observe all these holidays, as this depends on local regulations.

This is a partial list of commonly observed restricted holidays. For the exact list your local branch follows, check the circle-wise calendar on the official India Post holidays page.

What This Means for Speed Post & Parcel Delivery

Holidays at the post office can affect Speed ​​Post and parcel services; therefore, it is important to keep holidays in mind when sending important parcels.

• Post office operations remain closed on Sundays and gazetted holidays. Speed ​​Post and parcel booking services are not available on these days.
• A parcel that has already been dispatched cannot be cancelled, but its transit may take some time.
• If the scheduled delivery date for her parcel falls on a holiday, the parcel is dispatched on the next working day.
• Restricted holidays may only affect specific branches, so a Speed Post item can still move through hubs in states not observing that day.
• Plan time-sensitive documents or Speed Post bookings around gazetted dates, especially near festivals with multi-day closures.

Key Facts & Statistics

Source: publicly available India Post holiday notifications and independent holiday trackers, cross-checked as of the last-updated date above.

Frequently Asked Questions