Plan your month: Upcoming April public holidays to jot down

Fresh from a long weekend owed to Human Rights Day, South Africans are in for a treat of a month, with a host of public holidays coming up in April.

For the working world, it has become somewhat routine to look out for the golden week of public holidays in April, both for religious communities and workers looking for a well-deserved break.

Schoolchildren are also on holiday until Tuesday 5 April.

If you have annual leave built up, get your calendars out and start planning, especially if you want to hit that sweet spot of enjoying a good break without having to take too much leave.

Here are some important dates to take note of:

Easter

Signalling an end to lent, Easter is one of the Christian faith’s principal holidays.

It also always means having a long weekend.

This year, the long weekend starts on 15 April, which is Good Friday.

16 April is Holy Saturday, and 17 April is Easter Sunday. The following day, 18 April, is Easter Monday, or Family Day.

Freedom Day

Just over a week after the Easter long weekend, on 27 April, is Freedom Day, this year falling on a Wednesday.

The 27^th of April marks the commemoration of the country’s first democratic elections, held on this day in 1994.

2022 marks 28 years since the advent of democracy in South Africa.

Ramadan

This year, Ramadan, one of the holiest Islamic months, will on 2 April this, until Eid ul Fitr, celebrated on 2 May.

This however depends on when the moon is sighted, with the Islamic calendar being a lunar one.

Fasting during Ramadan lasts between 29 and 30 days. The start of Ramadan is based on a combination of verified physical moon sightings and astronomical calculations.

Click here for Ramadan fasting times in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.