Holidays
As an international organization, W3C meetings are impacted by holidays in various countries and cultures. This page lists holidays that frequently impact our participants, so meeting planners can decide well in advance whether to reschedule or cancel meetings.
Detailed information about holidays in some jurisdictions:
January
1: New Year's Day. Consider overlap from "end of year" typical W3C downtime. Usually this is the remainder of the week that contains New Year's Day., with groups resuming the Monday of the first full week of the new year except when New Year's Day occurs over the weekend. In that instance the first Monday of the month will be a legal holliday in many jurisdictions.
Third Monday: U.S. Martin Luther King Jr Day. A U.S. Federal holiday, often forgotten by people following their end of year break.
February
Third Monday: U.S. President's Day, a Federal holiday.
Chinese New Year may land end of February.
March
Daylight time changes may affect meetings in March
Chinese New Year may land beginning of March.
Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter Monday may occur in March. Note that Western (Catholic/Protestant) and Eastern (Orthodox) Christians rely on different calendar formulae to calculate these holidays and observances are, consequently, usually obccur in different weeks. They can occur as much as a month apart.
Passover may occur in March.
April
29 - Golden week, Japan Daylight time changes may affect meetings in April
Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Good Friday and Easter Monday may occur in April. In a lot of Europe these are significant holiday periods. In Australia, they may coincide with school holidays. See also the note above about Easter timing.
Passover may occur in April
April 4 or 5 - Chinese Qingming Festival. If the holliday occurs on a Tuesday or Thursday, people may take the opportunity to create a 4 day weekend holiday.
April 15 is Patriots' Day in the U.S. State of Massachusetts. This localized holliday, of which even most Americans are unaware, may affect the availability of W3C staff located at MIT.
May
1: International Workers' Day in most of Europe, Africa, Asia, Central and Southern America.
1-5: golden week, Japan
1-5: Labour day, China
24: Victoria Day/National Patriots' Day(Quebec) - Canada
Last Monday: U.S. Memorial Day, U.K. Spring Bank Holiday. Traditional beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere.
June
19: (or the Monday or Friday nearest when the 19th falls on a Saturday or Sunday) "Juneteenth" is the newest U.S. Federal Holliday celebrating the end of legal slavery (and of Afro-American culture). 24: Fete nationale (a.k.a. Fete St. Jean Baptiste) - Quebec (Canada) Only
Dragon boat festival may land - China
July
1: Canada Day, Canadian Federal holiday
4: Independence Day, U.S. Federal holiday. Often affects either the Friday following, or the Monday preceding.
14: Bastille Day, French national holiday.
August
2: Provincial Holidays - Canada (Each Canadian Province has a different name for this civic holiday; critically most businesses are closed)
15: Assumption (France)
Participation generally slackens for summer vacations, especially near the end of the month.
September
First Monday: U.S. and Canada Labor Day. Traditional end of summer holiday in the northern hemisphere.
TPAC 2024 is set as a hybrid meeting for the week beginning Monday 23 September 2024 with in person meetings at the Hilton hotel in Anaheim, California USA.
Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah may begin.
Mid-Autumn Festival may land - China
October
2: start of National Golden Week in China, a week-long holiday.
Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah
Second Monday: Canadian Thanksgiving Day
31: Halloween, not a formal holiday, but often a concern to parents with children.
Daylight time changes may affect meetings in October
November
11: Veteran's Day / Remembrance Day / Armistice Day in many countries.
First full week: Many W3C groups do not meet the week following TPAC, especially if they DID meet at TPAC, and especially early in the week following TPAC.
Daylight time changes may affect meetings in November.
Fourth Thursday: U.S. Thanksgiving Day, a U.S. Federal holiday. Generally also eliminates the Friday following, and the days preceding tend to be problematic.
December
24 and 25: Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. The 25th is a U.S. Federal holiday and days around it are frequently taken off.
26: Boxing Day, a holiday in UK and Canada.
Generally, most W3C groups suspend work for two weeks beginning the week which contains Christmas Day, continuing into the new year.