Easter Monday

Easter Monday is the legal holiday after Western Easter Sunday. It extends the Christian celebration of Jesus’s resurrection and is expressly listed in Benin’s 1990 law. Catholic, Protestant and independent churches form varied communities across the country, and Easter worship can include Holy Week services, baptism, music, preaching and family gatherings rather than one uniform national ritual.

Christianity in the region has histories reaching beyond the colonial period, but European missions and colonial institutions expanded churches, schools and medical work during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Beninese Christians subsequently shaped denominations through local languages, music, leadership and theology. Easter Monday’s civic status sits beside Muslim and traditional-religion holidays, illustrating legal recognition of several faith calendars without making religious observance compulsory.

Western Easter falls on April 5 in 2026, so Easter Monday is April 6. The Ministry of Labour separately confirmed that Monday as paid and non-working nationwide. Offices, schools and many businesses close, while hospitals, transport, security, hospitality and other continuous services may retain rosters. Because the holiday is always Monday, substitution is not an issue; future dates can be calculated from Easter but current official notices remain the authority for operational planning.