Eid Al Fitr (second day) 2027

Type of holiday: statutory public holiday, a non-working day.

The second day of Eid Al Fitr, 2 Shawwal, is the middle of the statutory block. It has its own page here for the same reason it has its own row in the calendar: this site treats every non-working date as a separate entry, which is what allows the working-day tool to subtract the right number of days rather than a single generic "Eid".

The quieter day

If the first day belongs to the dawn prayer and the immediate household, the second belongs to everyone else. It is given over to visiting — extended family, neighbours, the majlis, colleagues — and to travelling within the country. Beaches and parks fill, the mountain roads towards Hatta and the east coast carry heavy traffic, and hotels in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah reach the occupancy levels they normally see only at the turn of the year.

Where the block lands in the week

Because the start of the block is set by the moon rather than by a weekday, its position in the working week is different every year, and so is the size of the break it produces. A block opening on a Thursday runs into the Saturday and Sunday weekend and gives four or five continuous days off. A block opening on a Monday leaves a stub of two working days at the end of the week. A block opening on a Sunday wastes one of its days on a day that was not going to be worked anyway, and — since there is no substitute-day mechanism in the UAE — nothing is added back to compensate.

What is running

Government service centres, courts, schools and bank branches are shut. Cards, wallets and ATMs work normally, but interbank settlement pauses, so a transfer sent into the block generally lands on the first working day after it. Malls, restaurants, cinemas and attractions keep long holiday hours and are among the busiest places in the country. Each emirate's transport authority publishes its own holiday timetable and parking arrangements shortly before the days themselves, and the two rarely match across emirates.

In a working-day count this date is deducted exactly like any other federal holiday. It is worth remembering what that number means in practice: a supplier who quotes three working days over an Eid block is quoting a calendar week or more, and a document lodged on the last working day beforehand will not be looked at until the block has finished.