[egbavou]

Benin's holidays did not match the laws that define them. This PR fixes the dates and adds the legal sources.

Changes

• Removed:
  • 26 October (Armed Forces Day) and 30 November (National Day): Law 90-019 does not list them;
  • 26 December: it has never been a holiday in Benin;
  • Easter Sunday: Law 90-019 lists only Easter Monday.
• 1 August now uses NATIONAL_DAY, whose French label "Fête Nationale" is the legal name of the day, instead of INDEPENDENCE_DAY.
• Vodoun Festival, with a new VODOUN_FESTIVAL key instead of the shared TRADITIONAL_DAY:
  • 10 January from 1998 to 2024 (Law 97-031);
  • from 2025, the second Friday of January and the Thursday before it (Law 2024-32, art. 3). This matches the days off declared by the government: 9–10 January 2025 and 8–9 January 2026;
  • no festival before 1998.
• National Days (Law 90-019, art. 3) added as observances, since they are working days:
  • 16 January, REMEMBRANCE;
  • 28 February, new PEOPLES_SOVEREIGNTY_DAY key. The law says "Journée de la Souveraineté du Peuple", which is not the "souveraineté nationale" of NATIONAL_SOVEREIGNTY_DAY;
  • 8 March, WOMENS_DAY.
• New keys are translated in all 8 description files.
• Islamic holidays are unchanged.
• Holidays before 1990 are still not modelled, as before.
• Tests: HolidayBJTest now covers:
  • the legal holidays and the observances;
  • the festival days in 1997, 1998, 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027;
  • the removed days.

The Benin public holidays now follow the same rules as the date-holidays npm package (commenthol/date-holidays#685) and the Nager.Date PR nager/Nager.Date#1175.

Sources

• Law 90-019 of 27 July 1990 (legal holidays, art. 1; National Days, art. 3): https://sgg.gouv.bj/doc/loi-90-019/
• Law 97-031 of 20 August 1997 (festival on 10 January): https://sgg.gouv.bj/doc/loi-97-031/
• Law 2024-32 of 2 September 2024 (second Friday of January and the Thursday before, art. 3): https://sgg.gouv.bj/doc/loi-2024-32/
• 9–10 January 2025 declared days off: https://beninwebtv.bj/benin-les-journees-du-09-et-10-janvier-2025-declarees-feriees-chomees-et-payees/
• 8–9 January 2026 declared days off: https://beninwebtv.bj/benin-les-journees-du-8-et-9-janvier-2026-declarees-feriees/

[derTobsch]

Hey @egbavou,
thanks for your time and effort!

I just found one small "issue":
The three observances (16 Jan, 28 Feb, 8 Mar) currently apply from 1900. They were created by Law 90-019, and 16 Jan and 28 Feb mark events from 1977 and 1990. Could you add validFrom="1990" to them and adjust the test?

[egbavou]

Thanks @derTobsch, good catch! I added validFrom="1990" to the three observances and adjusted the test: they are now checked as absent until 1989 and present from 1990.