Build an Indian holiday calendar with a free API
Pull national and gazetted holidays for any year and drop them into a calendar or "next holiday" widget.
By the apibharat.com team ·
The goal
Show India's national and gazetted holidays for a year — as a list, a calendar, or a "next public holiday" badge. The free Holidays API returns them for any year in one call.
The endpoint
endpoint
GET https://api.apibharat.com/v1/holidays/{year}response (GET /v1/holidays/2026)
{
"success": true,
"data": {
"year": 2026,
"count": 17,
"holidays": [
{ "holiday_date": "2026-01-26", "name": "Republic Day", "type": "National", "day_of_week": "Monday" },
{ "holiday_date": "2026-08-15", "name": "Independence Day", "type": "National", "day_of_week": "Saturday" }
]
},
"message": "Holidays found for 2026"
}JavaScript — render a list
javascript
async function loadHolidays(year) {
const res = await fetch(`https://api.apibharat.com/v1/holidays/${year}`);
const json = await res.json();
if (!json.success) return [];
return json.data.holidays;
}
loadHolidays(2026).then(list => {
const ul = document.getElementById("holidays");
list.forEach(h => {
const li = document.createElement("li");
li.textContent = `${h.holiday_date} — ${h.name} (${h.day_of_week})`;
ul.appendChild(li);
});
});Python
python
import requests
def next_holiday(year):
r = requests.get(f"https://api.apibharat.com/v1/holidays/{year}")
data = r.json()
if not data["success"]:
return None
return data["data"]["holidays"][0] # already sorted by date
print(next_holiday(2026))PHP
php
<?php
$year = 2026;
$json = json_decode(file_get_contents("https://api.apibharat.com/v1/holidays/$year"), true);
if ($json["success"]) {
foreach ($json["data"]["holidays"] as $h) {
echo $h["holiday_date"] . " — " . $h["name"] . PHP_EOL;
}
}Notes
- Holidays are returned sorted by date, each with its
type(National / Gazetted) andday_of_week. - Festival dates are lunar, so confirm the current year is available before relying on it in production.
- A missing or invalid year returns
success: false— handle that before iterating.
See the Holidays API reference for the full field list.