The following are public holidays in Tuvalu. [1]
Date | English name | Tuvaluan name |
---|---|---|
1 January | New Year's Day | Tausaga Fou |
Second Monday in March | Commonwealth Day | |
moveable in autumn | Good Friday | |
moveable in autumn | Easter Monday | |
Second Monday in May | Gospel Day | Te Aso o te Tala Lei |
Second Saturday in June (can vary if appointed differently) | King's Official Birthday | |
First Monday in August | National Children's Day | Aso Tamaliki |
1 October (public holiday continues 2 October) | Tuvalu Day | |
Second Monday in November | Heir to the Throne's Birthday | |
25 December | Christmas Day | Kilisimasi |
26 December | Boxing Day |
Also, the regions observe the following regional holidays: [2]
Date | Atoll/Island | Name | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
8 January | Nanumea | Te Po o Tefolaha | Called Aso Pati by the Church, it is a day to commemorate the founder of the community, Tefolaha. It was the day Nanumea embraced Christianity. [3] |
3 February | Nanumea | Po Lahi | Celebrated with a feast in the ahiga [4] |
11 February | Nukufetau | Te Aso o Tutasi | Honors the Tutasi school. |
16 February | Nui | Bogin te Ieka (Day of the Flood) | Commemorates the Tsunami that struck the island on that day in 1882. [5] [6] |
15 April | Nanumaga | Aho o te Fakavae | |
23 April | Funafuti | Te Aso o te Paula (The day of the bombing) [7] | Commemorates the day during the Pacific War (World War II) when 10 to 20 people took refuge in the concrete walled, pandanus-thatched church from a Japanese bombing raid. [7] Corporal Fonnie Black Ladd, USMCR, persuaded them to get into dugouts, then a bomb struck the building shortly after. [8] [9] |
moveable in May | Nukulaelae | Aso o te Tala Lei | Island-specific Gospel Day. |
17 September | Niutao | Te Aso o te Setema | |
21 October | Funafuti | Cyclone Day | Commemorates Cyclone Bebe's destruction of Funafuti in 1972. [10] [11] |
25 November | Vaitupu | Te Aso Fiafia (Happy Day) | Commemorates 25 November 1887 which was the date on which the final instalment of a debt of $13,000 was repaid to H. M. Ruge and Company. [12] |
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