December 27 Holiday: Why Are Banks Closed On Saturday? State-Wise List For Public Holiday On Guru Gobind Singh

A majority of states are celebrating Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti on December 27, and accordingly they have declared a public and school holidays on this auspicious day. However, December 27th is also the fourth Saturday of the current month. Does that mean banks are closed as well? Check state-wise public and school holidays and city-wise bank holidays list here.

Bank Holiday On December 27:

As per RBI's holiday list, all banks are closed in cities like Kohima on Saturday, in continuation of the celebration of Christmas festival. However, since December 27th is also the fourth Saturday of the month, all banks in India including foreign, regional and local banks are shut.

Since September 2015, RBI has introduced alternative Saturday holidays for bank employees across scheduled commercial banks. This means, bank employees will get only two Saturdays as holiday every month, while the rest of Saturdays, operations will be normal.

As per the guidelines, 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 from September 01, 2015; and will observe full working days on Saturdays other than second and fourth Saturdays.

Due to this, RBI's guidelines also said that 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)].

December 27 Holiday

Apart from this, many states are celebrating the birth anniversary of tenth guru of Sikhs. He is none other than Guru Gobind Singh.

School Holidays + Public Holidays On December 27:

- Uttar Pradesh state has declared December 27th as public holiday. This means all educational institutions and government offices will be closed.

- Just like UP, the state of Punjab has declared an official school, colleges and public holiday on December 27. Hence, government offices will be closed as well.

- Uttarakhand has declared official public holiday.

Other states that have declared school and public holidays are --- Bihar, Chandigarh, and Haryana.

Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti 2025:

Guru Gobind Singh, born as Gobind Das on 22 December 1666, was the tenth and last human Sikh Guru. He was a warrior, poet, and philosopher. In 1675, at the age of nine, he was formally made the leader of the Sikhs after his father Guru Tegh Bahadur-the ninth Sikh Guru-was executed by the emperor Aurangzeb. His four biological sons died during his lifetime-two in battle and two executed by the Mughal administrator Wazir Khan. He died on October 7, 1708, as per Wikipedia.