Most email marketing calendars online are written for one country and quietly assume it's the US. That's fine until you send to a second market and discover that Mother's Day falls in March in the UK and in May almost everywhere else, or that your Sunday "weekend" send landed on a working day in Israel.
This is the list we wish we'd had: the dates that change what people buy, open or ignore in 2027, with the markets they matter in. Dates that follow the moon are marked as expected. Confirm them closer to the time, because the final dates are announced locally.
How to use this list
Pick the dates that matter for your markets, then count back. For a promotional email tied to a date, a good default is:
- Send: three to seven days before the date for gifting occasions, and on the day or a day before for sales events.
- Approval due: two working days before the send.
- Build by: five working days before the send.
- Copy and translation: at least two weeks before the send for anything going to more than one language.
So for Mother's Day in the US on 9 May, you'd want copy finished around 13 April. For Mothering Sunday in the UK on 7 March, that's around 9 February, which is earlier than most teams expect. Our free email marketing calendar template has these dates worked through as examples.
January 2027
- 1 January (Friday): New Year's Day. Quiet inboxes in most markets. A good day for a light-touch "year ahead" email, not a hard sell.
- 18 January (Monday): Martin Luther King Jr. Day, US. A federal holiday. Lower open rates on business email.
- 26 January (Tuesday): Australia Day. Public holiday in Australia. Many Australians are still on summer holidays through January.
- Late January to February: back to school in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. The school year starts at the opposite time to the northern hemisphere.
February 2027
- 6 February (Saturday): Waitangi Day, New Zealand. New Zealand's national day. As it falls on a Saturday, the public holiday moves to Monday 8 February.
- 6 February (Saturday): Lunar New Year. The Year of the Goat begins. It's the biggest holiday of the year across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and South Korea, and the celebrations run for about two weeks, to the Lantern Festival on 20 February. Expect many people in those markets to be offline for several days.
- 8 February (Monday), expected: Ramadan begins. The start depends on the moon sighting, and some countries may begin a day later. Shopping and screen time shift to the evenings and the late night during Ramadan in much of the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
- 8 and 9 February (Monday and Tuesday): Carnival, Brazil. A national pause. Don't plan anything important for Brazil this week. Ash Wednesday follows on 10 February.
- 14 February (Sunday): Valentine's Day. Widely celebrated in the Americas, Europe and much of Asia. In Japan and South Korea, gifts traditionally go from women to men on this day, with the return gift on White Day in March.
- 15 February (Monday): Presidents' Day, US. A long weekend and a common sale date for US retailers.
March 2027
- 7 March (Sunday): Mothering Sunday, UK and Ireland. Two months earlier than Mother's Day in most other markets. This is the one that catches international teams out.
- 8 March (Monday): International Women's Day. A public holiday in some countries and widely marked in Italy, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
- 9 or 10 March, expected: Eid al-Fitr. The end of Ramadan, and one of the biggest gifting and shopping moments of the year in Muslim-majority markets. The exact day is confirmed by moon sighting.
- 14 March (Sunday): White Day, Japan and South Korea. The return gift for Valentine's Day.
- 17 March (Wednesday): St Patrick's Day. A public holiday in Ireland, and a big date for Irish diaspora audiences in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.
- 22 March (Monday): Holi. The festival of colours in India and Nepal. Some calendars give 23 March, so check against your local market.
- 26 to 29 March: Easter weekend. Good Friday 26 March, Easter Sunday 28 March, Easter Monday 29 March. A four-day weekend in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and much of Europe. In the US, neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday is a federal holiday.
- Clock changes: the US and Canada move their clocks on 14 March, Europe on 28 March. For two weeks the gap between London and New York is four hours instead of five.
April 2027
- April: the new school and financial year in Japan. The school year starts in April, and so do many company budgets. India's financial year also starts on 1 April.
- 13 to 15 April: Songkran, Thai New Year. A three-day national holiday in Thailand, with similar new year celebrations in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
- 25 April (Sunday): ANZAC Day, Australia and New Zealand. A day of remembrance, not a sale date. New Zealand's public holiday moves to Monday 26 April, and some Australian states add the Monday too.
- 29 April (Thursday) to 5 May (Wednesday): Golden Week, Japan. A run of public holidays. Many people travel. Send before it, not during it.
May 2027
- 3 May and 31 May (Mondays): bank holidays, UK.
- 6 May (Thursday): Ascension Day. A public holiday in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and the Nordic countries. In Germany it's also Vatertag, Father's Day.
- 9 May (Sunday): Mother's Day in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Japan, Brazil, India and many other markets. The single biggest gifting date of the spring.
- 10 May (Monday): Día de las Madres, Mexico. Always 10 May, whatever the day of the week.
- 16 or 17 May, expected: Eid al-Adha. The second major Eid of the year, again confirmed by moon sighting.
- 16 May (Sunday): Pentecost. Whit Monday on 17 May is a public holiday in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and most of Switzerland.
- 30 May (Sunday): Fête des Mères, France. The last Sunday in May this year.
- 31 May (Monday): Memorial Day, US. The unofficial start of summer and a common sale weekend.
June 2027
- 7 June (Monday): King's Birthday, New Zealand. A long weekend. Most Australian states mark it a week later, on 14 June.
- 18 June (Friday): 618 shopping festival, China. The mid-year counterpart to Singles' Day, run by the big Chinese marketplaces.
- 20 June (Sunday): Father's Day in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, France and many other markets. Australia and New Zealand celebrate it in September.
- 25 June (Friday): Matariki, New Zealand. The Māori New Year and a public holiday, so a long weekend. A growing moment for New Zealand brands, though one to mark thoughtfully rather than as a sale.
- 25 June (Friday): Midsummer Eve, Sweden and Finland. Effectively a national holiday. Much of the Nordics winds down for summer from here.
- Mid-year: Amazon Prime Day. Usually in July, but in 2026 Amazon moved the US event to June. The dates are announced a few weeks ahead, and competing sales cluster around them.
July 2027
- 1 July (Thursday): Canada Day.
- 4 July (Sunday): Independence Day, US. The federal holiday is observed on Monday 5 July.
- 14 July (Wednesday): Bastille Day, France.
- July and August: European summer. France, Italy and Spain slow down sharply in August. Plan lighter sends and expect slower approvals from local teams.
August 2027
- 30 August (Monday): summer bank holiday, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- August and September: back to school in North America and Europe. One of the bigger retail periods of the year for families.
September 2027
- 5 September (Sunday): Father's Day, Australia and New Zealand.
- 6 September (Monday): Labor Day, US, and Labour Day, Canada.
- 14 to 16 September: Chuseok, South Korea, with the main day on 15 September. The same lunar date is the Mid-Autumn Festival in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, a major gifting occasion.
- 18 September to 3 October: Oktoberfest, Munich. A big cultural moment in Germany and a theme for brands well beyond it.
October 2027
- 3 October (Sunday): German Unity Day.
- 11 October (Monday): Thanksgiving, Canada. Six weeks before the US Thanksgiving, and easy to confuse with it.
- 25 October (Monday): Labour Day, New Zealand. A long weekend and the unofficial start of summer.
- 29 October (Friday): Diwali. The biggest festival of the year in India and a major shopping period, with similar weight for Indian audiences in the UK, US, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, the UAE and elsewhere. Some regions mark it on 30 October.
- 31 October (Sunday): Halloween. Big in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland. Growing, but much smaller, elsewhere.
- Clock changes: Europe goes back an hour on 31 October, the US and Canada on 7 November.
November 2027
- 1 and 2 November: Día de Muertos, Mexico.
- 11 November (Thursday): Singles' Day. Started in China as the world's biggest single shopping day, and now used as a sale date in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
- Mid-November: El Buen Fin, Mexico. Mexico's national sale event, held around the Revolution Day long weekend, which falls on 15 November in 2027. The official dates are announced each year.
- 25 November (Thursday): Thanksgiving, US.
- 26 November (Friday): Black Friday. Now a sale date in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and more. Many brands run a week or more either side.
- 29 November (Monday): Cyber Monday.
December 2027
- 24 December (Friday) at sundown: Hanukkah begins, running until nightfall on 1 January 2028.
- 25 December (Saturday): Christmas Day.
- 26 December (Sunday): Boxing Day. A major sale day in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with public holidays moving to Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December. In the US it's an ordinary day.
- 31 December (Friday): New Year's Eve.
Some things that aren't on a calendar
- Weekends differ. In Saudi Arabia and Israel the weekend is Friday and Saturday, so a Sunday send lands on a working day.
- Seasons flip. A July "summer sale" goes out in the middle of winter in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina.
- Pay day matters. Many countries pay monthly, often at the end of the month. In Japan, pay day is commonly the 25th. A promotion in the days after pay day usually does better than one just before it.
- Local events beat global ones. Every market has dates no global list will cover: regional holidays, big sports finals, local shopping festivals. Ask each market for its own top ten once a year.
Dates marked as expected depend on moon sighting or official announcements. We checked them against published sources in October 2026: The National and Khaleej Times for Ramadan and Eid, Hebcal for Hanukkah, the City of Munich for Oktoberfest, and public holiday calendars for Lunar New Year, Chuseok, Diwali and Holi.
Plan it, then plan it per market
A dates list is the start. The work is turning it into a plan where every market has its own send date, its own approver and its own status. If you're doing that in a spreadsheet, start from the free email marketing calendar template. If you want the plan, the approvals and a shareable view for local teams in one place, that's what Mailfois is for. Create a free account.
Comparing tools to run your calendar in? See the best email marketing calendar and planning tools for 2027, compared honestly on per-market dates, sign-off and real cost.
