Key Difference: Public holiday is a holiday that is generally established by law and is usually a non-working day. There are different considerations and different days that a government schedules a public holiday. National holiday is a day when a nation or a non-sovereign country celebrates its independence, establishment or an otherwise important occasion.

There are lots of holidays all over the world. In each and every country, there are different public holidays and national holidays.

Public holidays are observed in all over the countries. Many people also call it as bank holidays and government holidays. There are different considerations and different days that a government/state schedules a public holiday. It varies from country to country. These are the general days of celebration. For example: In Australia, public holidays are declared on a state and territory basis, with the exception of national holidays. In South Africa, if the holiday is falling on a Sunday, then automatically that holiday will held on a Monday. In India, national holiday and public holiday are somewhat similar to each other.

In some countries, there is no compulsion for the companies to give a public holiday to the employees. However, if there’s a national holiday then the companies have to give a holiday to the employees, by default.

A national holiday is a day when a nation or a non-sovereign country celebrates its independence, establishment or a momentous occasion. People often get confused with the holidays declared on the birthday and deathday of the ruler or saints, but they can also be considered as a national holiday. Usually, all the countries have only one national holiday, but some countries have more than one. For example: Pakistan and India have three national holidays each.

The importance of the National holiday varies from country to country. In older times, people used to celebrate national holiday as any significant event, whereas, nowadays people celebrate a national holiday as a day of their independence. Denmark and the United Kingdom are among the few countries that do not have selected national days.

Comparison between Public Holiday and National Holiday:

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