Heritage Day and Braai Day
Why South Africans braai on 24 September, where the day came from, and a menu and timeline for a Heritage Day braai at home or abroad.
On 24 September South Africa has a public holiday called Heritage Day. For many people it is also National Braai Day, the one day of the year when the whole country is expected to light a fire.
Where Heritage Day comes from
Heritage Day was created after 1994 to celebrate the country’s cultural diversity. The date already had a history. In KwaZulu-Natal, 24 September was Shaka Day, marking the death of King Shaka in 1828. When the new public-holiday calendar was drawn up, the day was kept as Heritage Day as part of a compromise with the Inkatha Freedom Party.
How Braai Day started
In 2005 Jan Scannell, better known as Jan Braai and then 25 years old, started a campaign suggesting that all South Africans mark the day the same way: around a fire. The National Heritage Council criticised the idea at first, then endorsed it in 2007, when it was renamed Braai4Heritage. The same year Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu became the campaign’s patron. He pointed out that every South African language uses the same word for it, braai, and called it a simple way to bring people together across race, culture and language.
The debate
Not everyone is in favour. Critics, including writers and politicians, say that turning a heritage day into a braai trivialises and commercialises it, reduces a national day to meat on a fire, and overlooks poverty and food waste. Supporters answer that the braai is the one ritual nearly every community already shares, and that the point of the day is the gathering rather than the menu. Both sides agree the holiday is about who South Africans are; they differ on whether a fire is the right way to say it.
How the day is celebrated
Braais at home, in parks and at public events. Schools and offices hold heritage dress days in the week before. Late September is early spring, so the day also marks the unofficial start of braai season. Menus lean traditional.
A Heritage Day menu
Pick three or four from this list, not all of them. Portion guidance is in how much meat per person.
| Course | Recipe |
|---|---|
| To start | Boerewors rolls with tomato smoor |
| Off the grid | Karoo lamb chops, chicken sosaties |
| Slow pot | Lamb potjie |
| Sides | Pap and chakalaka, braaied mielies |
| Bread | Braaibroodjies, roosterkoek |
| Dessert | Malva pudding |
Timeline for a 1 pm braai
- 9:30 Light a small fire for the potjie. Brown the meat and get it simmering by 10:00. See potjie basics.
- 11:00 Light the main fire. Wood needs 60 to 90 minutes to burn down to coals, briquettes about 30. See how long to let the fire burn.
- 11:30 Make the roosterkoek dough and leave it to rise. Build the braaibroodjies.
- 12:00 Salt the chops. Thread the sosaties.
- 12:15 Chicken and sosaties go on the cooler edge. Roosterkoek go on over low coals.
- 12:30 Boerewors and chops go on. Braaibroodjies go on the edge. See braai timing.
- 12:50 Meat comes off to rest. Mielies go over the coals. Malva pudding goes into the kettle or oven.
- 13:00 Eat.
Celebrating abroad
A Heritage Day braai works anywhere there is a fire. Boerewors is the hard part. Look for a South African shop or butcher, or an online supplier that ships frozen; many cities with an expat community have one. If there is none, make your own from the homemade boerewors recipe, or use a coarse, mild pork and beef sausage. Coarse polenta stands in for maize meal in pap, and mango chutney does the job of Mrs Ball’s in chakalaka.
Dates
- 2026: Thursday 24 September
- 2027: Friday 24 September
- 2028: Sunday 24 September, with the public holiday observed on Monday 25 September