December is not the ideal time for a trade show or conference. The year is winding to a close and the holiday season is accelerating, while attentions turn elsewhere and schedules fill with celebrations, time off and end-of-year to-dos.

Holidays and festivals on the calendar influence event and other planning in the promotional products industry. Schedules typically already reflect Christmas, Easter and other holidays, but as the industry, its clients and end-users grow more diverse and international, the number of important dates on the calendar event planners must pay mind to also grows.

Members of the Jewish faith have a long history in the promotional products field. Their calendar contains several holy days and festivals that organizers may want to keep in mind in their planning to ensure their attendees and exhibitors won’t have scheduling challenges. A complete listing of Jewish holidays in 2023 can be found here, but the most significant, for event planners, are likely the three religious holidays most-observed: Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The dates are:

  • Passover: Begins sunset of April 5 and ends sundown of April 13.
  • Rosh Hashanah: Begins sunset of September 15 and ends sundown of September 17.
  • Yom Kippur: Begins sunset of September 24 and ends sundown of September 25.

“Ours is a lunar calendar,” says Wayne Greenberg, MAS, president of Swag Krewe, a division of Geiger. “That means that our holidays start the night before. That’s a central point.

“So, if a calendar says the holiday is the 14th, it’s really sundown on the 13th to sundown of the 14th. In this case, scheduling an event that is over at two or three on the 13th would not work; no travel time home before sundown.”

Planners should consider preparation as well as travel time. With the holiday beginning at sundown, a conference or trade show ending in the middle of the afternoon could make it difficult for attendees to get home in time.

“I can think of numerous instances when I was precluded from attending industry functions,” says Harvey Mackler, MAS, president of Tampa-based supplier GEMPIRE. “Customer annual meetings, customer local end-user shows, regional association meetings and end-user shows to name the majority.

“And for these ‘major’ holidays, the travel days may also have impacted our ability to participate. For example, for an out-of-town trade show, if the holiday is the day prior to the show, that is also a problem.”

Every faith and culture has important holy days and celebrations. Depending on the vendors, clients and end buyers an industry company works with and the audience an event serves, they may factor into planners’ thinking as they develop their schedules. Examples include:

  • Ramadan, a month of fasting, prayer and reflection in the Muslim community, begins in 2023 on the evening of March 22, and ends the evening of April 21. Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, then runs to the evening of April 22. Eid al-Adha begins in the evening of June 28 and ends the following evening.
  • The Hindu celebration of Holi falls on March 8, in 2023, and Diwali is November 12.
  • The Chinese New Year, marketing the Year of the Rabbit, is January 22.

Additionally, in June 2021, Juneteenth – June 19 – was signed into law as the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. Federal workers and most banks will be closed, as well as other businesses in and outside of the promotional products industry.

The promotional products industry has an extensive calendar of trade shows, conferences and other events. Visit PPAI’s website for the latest schedule.