Bank Holidays In May 2026: Banks Will Be Shut For 12 Days This Month; Maharashtra Day To Bakra Eid, Full List

Indian banks are up for an exciting 12 days holiday in May 2026. Starting off with May 1st, the majority of scheduled commercial banks are closed due to the celebration of Maharashtra Din, Buddha Purnima and Labour Day. Apart from this, banks will be closed for events and festivals like Birthday of Rabindranath Tagore, State Day, and Bakra Eid. Additionally, the month of May has five Saturdays, but banks will be closed for the second and fourth Saturdays as per usual. Lastly, all Sundays will be bank holidays. Check the full city-wise list here.

Bank Holiday On May 1:

Banks are closed due to celebration of Maharashtra Din/Buddha Pournima/May Day (Labour Day)/Birth Anniversary of Pandit Raghunath Murmu.

Banks Closed Today:

As per RBI's list, banks are closed on May 1st in cities like Agartala, Aizawl, Belapur, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chennai, Dehradun, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Itanagar, Jammu, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Panaji, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Shimla, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, and Vijayawada.

Banks Open Today:

But banks are open in cities like Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Gangtok, Jaipur, Kohima, and Shillong on May 1st.

Maharashtra Day 2026:

On May 1st, 1960, late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, along with Yashwantrao Chavan and Sri Prakasa, introduced the map of Maharashtra at Raj Bhavan, Mumbai. Since that day, May 1st is officially recognized as Maharashtra Din. On this day, the government declares a public holiday for all banks, schools, offices, institutions and markets. Every year, the day is celebrated with a grand and astonishing parade at Shivaji Park, Dadar, followed by a speech from Governor of Maharashtra.

Buddha Purnima 2026:

Buddha Purnima is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the prince Siddhartha Gautama, who later earned the title of Buddha and founded the culture Buddhism. This day is also called as Buddha's Birthday or Buddha Day.

Labour Day 2026:

Labour Day is an official public holiday in many countries. In most countries, Labour Day is synonymous with, or linked with, International Workers' Day, which happens on 1 May. It was originally chosen to commemorate the 1886 general strike which culminated in the Haymarket affair, as per Wikipedia.

Pandit Raghunath Murmu Anniversary:

Pandit Raghunath Murmu was an Indian writer, who developed the Ol Chiki script for the Santali language. It is being known that till 19th century, the Santali people were without any written language and knowledge.

Bank Holiday On May 9:

Banks will be closed in cities of West Bengal like Kolkata to celebrate the birthday of Rabindranath Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore Anniversary 2026:

Rabindranath Tagore was a British Indian polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renaissance. He reshaped Bengali literature and music as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as per Wikipedia.

Bank Holiday On May 16:

Banks will be closed on May 16 in cities like Gangtok. This is due to the Sikkim State Day, which is the commemoration of Sikkim as the 22nd state of India during 1975.

Bank Holiday On May 26:

On this day, banks will be closed in cities like Agartala as citizens here will celebrate the birthday of Kazi Nazrul Islam, who was a Bengali poet, short story writer, journalist, lyricist, and musician. He was also recognized as the national poet of Bangladesh.

Bank Holiday On May 27 and May 28:

Majority of banks are closed on May 27th and May 28th due to the celebration of Bakra Eid. The Bakra Eid which is also known as Eid-UI-Adha falls on May 27th. While the second day of this Eid, also popularly called as Id-ul-Zuha, to be celebrated on May 28. However, the bank holidays may vary from city to city.

On May 27, banks will be closed in cities like Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Kanpur, Kochi, Kohima, Kolkata, Lucknow, New Delhi, Raipur, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, and Vijayawada.

On May 28, but banks will be closed in cities like Belapur, Bengaluru, Chennai, Jaipur, Jammu, Mumbai, Nagpur, Panaji, Patna, and Srinagar.

Bakra Eid 2026:

Eid ul Adha is a festival celebrated among Muslims all over the world in remembrance of the sacrifice that Prophet Ibrahim (A.S.) made out of his strong faith in Allah. Hence, every year on the 10th of Dhul Hijjah, Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid ul Azha. On this day, Muslims slaughter a lamb, sheep, goat or camel to honor the sacrifice of Ibrahim (AS), as per Islamic Finder Org.

Bank Holidays On Saturdays:

This month, the second and fourth Saturdays for banks fall on May 9th and May 23rd. All banks will be closed on these two days.

Banks follow a unique pattern on weekend holiday. While the first and third Saturdays of a month, is a working day for banks. They are closed on second and fourth Saturdays of the month. If there is a fifth Saturday in a month, then that would be a working day as well.

Since September 2015, RBI has directed that all scheduled and non-scheduled banks - public, private, foreign, cooperative, regional rural and local area banks - will observe public holiday on second and fourth Saturdays.

Accordingly, payment systems will not be operated on second and fourth Saturdays but would operate for full day on working Saturdays. Payment systems typically includes Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT), Cheque Clearing operated by various Bankers' Clearing Houses in the country including the grid based Cheque Truncation System (CTS) and ECS suite [Electronic Clearing Service (ECS), Regional Electronic Clearing Service (RECS) and National Electronic Clearing Service (NECS)].

Bank Holidays On May 3rd, May 10th, May 17th, May 24th and May 31st

On these days, banks will be closed due to Sunday holiday.

Bank Holidays In May 2026 Full List

Date	Day	Occasion / Reason	Major Cities Affected
May 1	Friday	Maharashtra Day / Buddha Purnima / Labour Day	Most major cities (except Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, etc.)
May 3	Sunday	Weekly Holiday	National
May 9	Saturday	2nd Saturday / Birthday of Rabindranath Tagore	National (Tagore Jayanti specifically in Kolkata/WB)
May 10	Sunday	Weekly Holiday	National
May 16	Saturday	Sikkim State Day	Gangtok
May 17	Sunday	Weekly Holiday	National
May 23	Saturday	4th Saturday	National
May 24	Sunday	Weekly Holiday	National
May 26	Tuesday	Birthday of Kazi Nazrul Islam	Agartala
May 27	Wednesday	Bakra Eid (Eid-ul-Adha)	New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and others
May 28	Thursday	Bakra Eid (Id-ul-Zuha) - Day 2	Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and others
May 31	Sunday	Weekly Holiday	National