How holiday checking works

Useful warnings, with honest limits

Common Hours checks the meeting’s local date in every selected city against public-calendar information. When a nationwide holiday is found, it appears beside that city so the organizer can confirm availability before sending an invitation.

What the check covers

The tool looks for nationwide public holidays and known local calendar entries. India’s three fixed national holidays—Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti—also have built-in coverage when the external calendar cannot provide results.

What no calendar can know

Regional observances, substitute days, company shutdowns, school breaks and personal leave can differ. If coverage is unavailable, the site says so instead of incorrectly calling the date a normal working day.

How to use a warning

Holiday notices are not automatic exclusions. Confirm the observance with the local participant, then keep the proposed time, choose a nearby day or adjust the meeting. The people attending always make the final decision.

Countries with no upstream holiday data

The live holiday service returns nothing at all for India, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Malaysia and Israel. That is not an oversight on their part: these are the countries whose holidays are announced rather than fixed, set by moon sighting, cabinet decree or a lunar calendar, and no free holiday API attempts them. Common Hours fills the gap from a generated list so those cities are not left blank.

Dates that are estimates, and are labelled as such

Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, the Day of Arafah, the Islamic New Year, the Prophet’s Birthday and Ashura are confirmed by observation, often only days ahead. Where a date is an estimate the site says so rather than presenting it as settled. Saudi Arabia is the exception — it publishes its calendar in advance, so those dates carry no hedge.

Why a clear calendar is not the same as a free colleague

Regional holidays apply in one state, province or canton and not the next. Companies close between Christmas and New Year on their own schedule. School holidays quietly change when parents are available. None of that is visible to a country-level calendar, which is why every holiday notice on this site is phrased as something to confirm rather than something to act on.