Company Holiday List Management by Year

The holiday list is the first thing employees ask for in January and the page HR edits most during the year. In ZeniaHR it lives on the Holiday Calendars page, year by year. Each holiday has a name, a date, one of six categories, an optional note and a scope. Fixed-date holidays such as Republic Day can repeat every year, while festivals that move are added year by year, and archived holidays can be restored.

How it works

Open Holiday Calendars and choose the year. Tiles show the total holidays, how many are optional, how many apply only to some branches or departments, and the next holiday.
Add a holiday with its name, date and category: Public Holiday, Optional Holiday, National, Religious, Regional or Company.
Tick same date every year for fixed dates like Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti. Festivals that move each year are added per year.
Leave the branch and department lists empty for a company-wide holiday, or pick the ones it covers.
Search the list, filter by branch, department and type, and export what you see as CSV for notice boards and emails.
Archive a holiday that is cancelled or moved and restore it if plans change. A second holiday with the same name on the same date is refused.

What you can set

Six categories: Public Holiday, Optional Holiday, National, Religious, Regional and Company.
Same date every year, for fixed-date holidays.
Optional holiday tick, so the day counts only for the people who pick it.
Applies to branches and applies to departments; empty means everyone.
Note of up to 2,000 characters, for example which shift still runs that day.
Filters by search text, branch, department and type: every type, holidays or optional.
CSV export of the filtered list, and bulk loading through Data Import.
Archive and restore instead of deleting.

Why the holiday list needs one owner

In many companies the holiday list is a PDF forwarded on WhatsApp, edited by three people and different in every branch. The cost shows up later: a branch marked absent on a local holiday, a payroll dispute over a festival that moved, a sandwich rule charged on the wrong day. Keeping the list in one place, with each holiday scoped and dated, means attendance, leave and payroll all read the same answer. Moving festivals, such as Eid when the date depends on the moon, can be corrected in one edit that everyone sees.

Worked example: a 2026 list for a Pune manufacturer

An auto parts maker has a head office in Pune and a plant in Chakan. HR adds Republic Day on Monday 26 January, Independence Day on Saturday 15 August, Gandhi Jayanti on Friday 2 October and Christmas on Friday 25 December as repeating holidays, so they carry into 2027 without re-entry. Maharashtra Day on Friday 1 May goes in as a Regional holiday. Festivals such as Holi and Diwali are added with their 2026 dates, and two optional holidays complete the list.

Independence Day falls on a Saturday, a weekly off for head office staff but a working day at the plant, so the holiday matters most for plant workers. The tiles now read 12 holidays for 2026, 2 of them optional. HR exports the list as CSV for the canteen notice board and emails it to branch heads before 31 December.

Keeping the list accurate through the year

Tick repeating only for holidays that truly fall on the same date every year; a festival marked to repeat will land on the wrong day next year. Add a short note when a holiday affects shifts, such as production running with a skeleton crew. When a date changes at short notice, edit the holiday rather than adding a second one, so employees do not see both. Check the holiday rules that apply in your state each year before publishing.

See holiday list management in a demo

We show it on a video call with your own shifts, leave types and rules. Free for your first 50 employees.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I make a holiday repeat every year?

Tick same date every year when adding the holiday. ZeniaHR then places it on the same month and day in every year, which suits fixed dates such as Republic Day, Independence Day and Christmas. Festivals whose dates move with the lunar calendar should be added separately for each year.

What happens when a holiday is cancelled?

Archive it. An archived holiday disappears from employees' lists and stops counting as a holiday from then on, but it stays on record in the Holiday Calendars page. If the decision is reversed, restore it and it counts again, with its original scope and category.

Which holiday categories does ZeniaHR support?

Six: Public Holiday, Optional Holiday, National, Religious, Regional and Company. The category helps employees read the list and helps HR filter it. Whether a day counts for a person depends on its branch and department scope and, for optional holidays, on whether that person picked it.