Holiday Calendar
A holiday or trading calendar is a daily calendar with rules that determine which days are non-working or holiday days
Introduction
The holiday calendar is a daily calendar with holiday rules.
Holiday Rules
A holiday rule is an algorithm that determines if a specific day is a holiday. There are a number of built in standard algorithms which cater for all possible holiday dates. All rules can be written in plain English following a specific syntax for each rule.
Actual Rule
The actual rule defines a specific absolute day of a specific month like the 5th of May.
Syntax
DOM (OF)? MONTHNAME (named 'rule name')? (OPTION)*
Examples
5th of May named 'Labour Day'
8th of may named 'VE Day' from 2020 to 2020
25th of december named 'Christmas Day' on saturday shift 3 days and on sunday shift 2 days
Last Rule
The last rule represents the last specific named day of a specific month.
Syntax
last DOW in MONTHNAME (named 'rule name')? (OPTION)*
Examples
last monday in may named 'Spring Bank Holiday'
last monday in august named 'Summer Bank Holiday'
Every Rule
The every rule represents every named day line every Saturday
Syntax
every DOW (OPTION)*
Examples
every Saturday
every Sunday
Ordinal Rule
The ordinal rule is defined by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th specific named day of a specific month
Syntax
(FIRST|SECOND|THIRD|FOURTH) DOW IN MONTHNAME (named 'rule name')? (OPTION)*
Examples
first monday in may named 'Early May' to 2019
1st of January named 'New Years Day' on saturday shift 2 days and on sunday shift 1 day
Named Rule
The named rule represents a set of hard coded holidays such as Easter
Options are also supported on named rules
Syntax
(
Easter Sunday|
Easter Monday|
Good Friday|
Ascension Day|
Corpus Christi|
Pentecost|
Victoria Day|
Whit Monday
)
Supported Options
Some of the holiday rules support options which you can use to customise or add offsets, here is a list of the supported options in those rules:
| Option | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| on Saturday shift | If the holiday falls on a Saturday, shift it by x days | on Saturday shift 2 days |
| on Sunday shift | If the holiday falls on a Sunday, shift it by x days | on Sunday shift 1 day |
| on Monday shift | If the holiday falls on a Monday, shift it by x days | on Monday shift 1 day |
| from | Specifies that the holiday is valid from the specified year | from 2012 |
| to | Specifies that the holiday is valid to the specified year | to 2020 |
| repeating every | The holiday normally repeats every year, but specifying this enables you to only repeat a holiday every x years | repeating every 5 years |
| starting | Along with repeating, starting states when the repeating starts | starting 2012 |
Creating a calendar with your own rules
To create a new holiday calendar, use the constructor for a holiday calendar and add your rules. An example is shown below:
my_calendar = HolidayCalendar()
my_calendar.addRule("Every Saturday")
my_calendar.addRule("Every Sunday")
my_calendar.addRule("Good Friday")
my_calendar.addRule("Easter Monday")
my_calendar.addRule("First Monday in May named 'Early May'")
my_calendar.addRule("Last Monday in May named 'Spring Bank Holiday'")
my_calendar.addRule("Last Monday in August named 'Summer Bank Holiday'")
my_calendar.addRule("25th of december named 'Christmas Day' on saturday shift 3 days and on sunday shift 2 days")
my_calendar.addRule("26th of december named 'Boxing Day' on saturday shift 2 days and on sunday shift 1 day")
Saving and re-using your calendar
Once you have created your holiday calendar, you can save it to the calendar service using the save command on the calendar active variable service as follows:
save ${calendar:my_calendar}
Now, whenever you need to use your calendar in a script, you can simply use the active variable which will read your calendar from the calendar service as follows:
cal = ${calendar:"my_calendar"}