In mid-2024, Google Calendar revised its default holiday listings, removing several cultural observances, including Pride Month, Black History Month, Indigenous Peoples Month, Jewish Heritage, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Hispanic Heritage Month. This change has led to user backlash, with some expressing disappointment over the absence of these significant events.
A Google spokesperson explained that the manual addition of these events was not scalable or sustainable. Consequently, Google returned to displaying only public holidays and national observances sourced from timeanddate.com. Users can still manually add important cultural moments to their individual calendars.
This decision has sparked discussions about the balance between maintaining a manageable global calendar and recognizing diverse cultural events. While Google aims to manage feedback and maintain consistency globally, some users feel that the removal of these observances diminishes the platform’s inclusivity.
As of now, Google has not indicated plans to restore these cultural observances to the default calendar settings. Users interested in commemorating these events are encouraged to add them manually to their personal calendars.
