Singapore to have 7 long weekends in 2023 after Vesak Day revision
SINGAPORE — There will be seven public-holiday long weekends in 2023 — where the holiday falls on either a Friday, a Sunday or a Monday — after the public holiday for Vesak Day was gazetted to fall on Friday 2 June 2023, following a review by the Singapore Buddhist Federation (SBF).
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Thursday (29 September) said SBF had previously advised MOM that the holiday should fall on Saturday, 3 June.
But SBF said in a statement on the same day that the wrong date was determined based on the Standard Western-Chinese Multi-Year Almanac.
"Upon receiving feedback from members of public, we have verified the date against other Chinese almanacs and have established that based on the Mahayana tradition, the date of Vesak Day 2023 shall fall on 2 June 2023, which coincides with the 15th day of the Fourth Lunar Month," said SBF in a statement.
"We are sorry for any inconvenience caused and will in future conduct additional checks and verifications to prevent similar occurrence," it added.
The Chinese New Year holidays fall on Sunday, 22 January and Monday, 23 January, meaning that Tuesday 24 January will also be a public holiday, forming a single, four-day long weekend.
New Year's Day (1 January) and Deepavali (12 November) fall on Sundays, so the following Mondays will be public holidays.
The other long weekend holidays are over Good Friday (7 April), Labour Day (1 May), and Christmas Day (25 December).
Here is the list of public holidays in Singapore in 2023:
1 January (Sunday): New Year's Day
22/23 January (Sunday/Monday): Chinese New Year
7 April (Friday): Good Friday
22 April (Saturday): Hari Raya Puasa
1 May (Monday): Labour Day
2 June (Friday): Vesak Day
29 June (Thursday): Hari Raya Haji
9 August (Wednesday): National Day
12 November (Sunday): Deepavali
25 December (Monday): Christmas Day
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