Gulf national days 2026–27: get your website, WhatsApp and Google profile ready

Every Gulf country has at least one national day, and between late November and late February four of the six GCC countries celebrate theirs. Most advice on these occasions is about marketing ideas: a themed post, a discount, a green-white-red-black window display. That part is easy. What costs businesses customers is quieter: Google Maps showing normal opening hours on a public holiday, WhatsApp messages left unanswered for three days, a booking system that takes appointments for a day the clinic is closed, an online store that promises delivery on a day the courier does not work.

This is the checklist we give our clients across the UAE and the GCC, with the dates, the rules on flags and logos, and texts you can copy.

The dates for 2026–27

Country	Occasion	Date	Good to know
Oman	National Day	20–21 November 2026	Moved from 18 November by Royal Decree 15/2025. Holiday days are announced each year (in 2025 they were 26–27 November).
UAE	Eid Al Etihad (National Day)	2 December 2026	The 55th. The public holiday is expected on 2–3 December. Commemoration Day (30 November) comes just before it and is a day of remembrance, not an occasion for offers.
Bahrain	National Day and Accession Day	16–17 December 2026	Two days, usually both public holidays.
Qatar	Qatar National Day	18 December 2026	Usually a one-day public holiday.
Saudi Arabia	Founding Day	22 February 2027	Marks the founding of the first Saudi state in 1727. Not the same as National Day.
Kuwait	National Day and Liberation Day	25–26 February 2027	Two days in a row. Kuwait's weekend is Friday and Saturday, so 26 February 2027 falls on a weekend.
Saudi Arabia	Saudi National Day	23 September 2027	Marks the unification of the Kingdom in 1932. Discount licences peak around it.

Governments confirm the holiday days only a few weeks ahead, and the days off can differ from the anniversary. Treat the dates above as the occasion and check the official holiday announcement before you set your hours.

Two weeks before: the checklist

1. Google Business Profile: set special hours

When someone searches "dentist near me" or "pharmacy open now" on a public holiday, Google answers from your profile. If you have not set holiday hours, it either shows your normal hours or warns that "hours might differ", and people choose a competitor who has confirmed theirs.

In your profile, go to Edit profile → Hours → Special hours, add each holiday date and mark it closed or enter the hours you will keep. Do it about a week ahead, since Google can take a few days to show it everywhere. Then publish a short profile post with your greeting, your holiday hours and any offer; posts show on your profile in Google Search and Maps.

If you have branches in more than one country, set each branch's hours for its own national day. A Dubai branch and a Doha branch are closed on different dates.

2. Your website: say it where people look

• A dated banner at the top of every page: the greeting, your holiday hours and when you are back. Remove it after the holiday; an Eid Al Etihad banner still showing in January makes a site look unattended. (The banner code from our free tool removes itself automatically.)
• Your contact page and footer opening hours: add a line for the holiday dates. This is what Google and AI assistants read when someone asks whether you are open.
• Online booking: block out the closed days in your booking system so nobody books an appointment you cannot keep.
• Online stores: publish the last order date for delivery before the holiday and the date dispatch resumes, on the product pages and at checkout, not only on social media.
• An offer page, if you run an offer: one page in Arabic and English with the offer, the dates it runs and the conditions. Link your ads and posts to this page, not to the home page.

Not sure what your site already shows to Gulf visitors and to Google? Run it through the free UAE Website Checker or the GCC Website Checker for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. Both check for an Arabic version, WhatsApp, opening hours and local schema in about a minute.

3. WhatsApp: set an away message

For most Gulf businesses WhatsApp is the main enquiry channel, and holidays are when unanswered messages pile up. In WhatsApp Business go to Settings → Business tools → Away message, paste a short bilingual message and schedule it for the holiday dates. Update your quick replies too, so staff answering on the first day back have your holiday offer and dates to hand.

4. Social posts and ads: colours, not symbols

Plan your posts for the day before and the day itself, in Arabic first if your customers are mostly Arabic speakers, and keep the design in the national colours with your own brand. Two rules matter:

• Saudi Arabia bans national symbols in commercial use. The Ministry of Commerce bans the national flag, the state emblem and the names and images of the country's leaders in commercial promotions, publications, products and gifts, and inspects markets and online stores around National Day. Use the colours and a landmark, never the flag.
• The UAE's official Eid Al Etihad logo has strict guidelines. The brand kit is free at eidaletihad.ae and businesses are encouraged to use it, but the logo may not be stretched, recoloured, translated or combined with other logos, and it should not be used as a background pattern. If you want your own logo on the design, leave the official one out.

If you run Google or Meta ads, check that your ad schedule matches your holiday hours, add the holiday offer to your ad text with its end date, and send the ads to your offer page.

5. Discounts: check whether you need a permit

Promotions are regulated in several Gulf markets. In Saudi Arabia a business needs a discount licence from the Ministry of Commerce before it advertises a sale, and the ministry issues thousands of them around National Day. In Dubai, sales and promotions are regulated by the Department of Economy and Tourism. Rules differ by emirate and country, so check before you advertise a percentage off.

6. After the holiday

Switch the away message off, remove the banners and the special hours if you added them manually, and answer the messages that came in, oldest first. Keep your designs and texts: the same dates come back every year.

Copy-paste texts

Change the names and dates, or let the National Day Banner Maker fill them in for you.

WhatsApp away message (English)

Thank you for your message. Al Noor Dental Clinic is closed 2–3 December for Eid Al Etihad. We'll reply as soon as we're back on 4 December. Happy Eid Al Etihad!

WhatsApp away message (Arabic)

شكراً لتواصلك معنا. عيادة النور لطب الأسنان في إجازة من 2 إلى 3 ديسمبر بمناسبة عيد الاتحاد، وسنرد عليك فور عودتنا يوم 4 ديسمبر. كل عام والإمارات بخير!

Google Business Profile post

Happy Eid Al Etihad from everyone at Al Noor Dental Clinic! We're closed 2–3 December and back on 4 December. Book your next visit on WhatsApp.

Website banner

Happy Eid Al Etihad from Al Noor Dental Clinic! Closed 2–3 December, back on 4 December.

For the other countries, swap the greeting:

Occasion	English	Arabic
UAE Eid Al Etihad	Happy Eid Al Etihad	كل عام والإمارات بخير
Qatar National Day	Happy Qatar National Day	كل عام وقطر بخير
Bahrain National Day	Happy Bahrain National Day	كل عام والبحرين بخير
Kuwait National Day	Happy Kuwait National Day	كل عام والكويت بخير
Oman National Day	Happy Oman National Day	كل عام وعُمان بخير
Saudi Founding Day	Happy Founding Day	يوم تأسيس سعيد
Saudi National Day	Happy Saudi National Day	كل عام والسعودية بخير

Country notes

UAE. Eid Al Etihad on 2 December marks the union of the emirates in 1971; 2026 is the 55th. The official name is Eid Al Etihad, and the official brand kit at eidaletihad.ae comes with usage rules. Commemoration Day on 30 November honours the country's martyrs, so keep promotional posts for 2 December.

Saudi Arabia. There are two occasions: Founding Day (22 February) and National Day (23 September). The ban on the flag and national symbols applies to both, and so does the discount licence. Arabic is the main language for most Saudi customers; see our guide to building a website for Saudi Arabia.

Qatar. Qatar National Day on 18 December is the biggest public celebration of the year in Doha. If you sell into Qatar from the UAE, set your Qatar-facing pages and ads for 18 December, not 2 December. More in our Qatar website checklist.

Kuwait. National Day (25 February) and Liberation Day (26 February) run back to back, so plan one campaign for both days. See our guide to websites for Kuwait.

Bahrain. National Day and Accession Day on 16–17 December are celebrated together. See our Bahrain website guide.

Oman. Since Royal Decree 15/2025, Oman's National Day is on 20–21 November instead of 18 November, but the holiday days are announced separately each year and can fall later. Check the announcement before you set your hours. More in our Oman website guide.

Make it in a minute

Our free National Day Banner Maker covers all seven occasions above. Pick the country, type your business name and, if you want, an offer and your holiday dates, and choose English, Arabic or both. You get a square post, a story, a link image and a website banner as PNGs, plus the WhatsApp away message, the Google profile post and website banner code that hides itself after the holiday. Your logo and details stay in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

If you would rather have the whole thing done for you, from holiday banners and offer pages to a bilingual website that shows the right hours all year, talk to us.