This is our hub for calendars and countdowns — the dates UK families plan around, when they fall, how many days are left, and what to do with the day itself. Easter, Mother’s Day, the May bank holidays, half-term, the summer holidays, Bonfire Night, Christmas. We keep the dates current and the activity ideas family-friendly.
The dates that move each year — Easter and Mother’s Day in particular — get the most attention here because they’re the hardest to remember and the ones most readers come looking for. Our Easter countdown is the anchor of the section: it gives you the exact date for Easter Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Monday, and the bank-holiday rules across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The other pages widen out from there.
For year-round Christmas-specific countdowns — the daily count to 25 December, recipes for the festive run-up, calendar-of-events tracking — we run a sister site dedicated to it: christmascountdown.co.uk. The two hubs cross-link where it makes sense, but we keep the Christmas detail there and the year-round family calendar here.
Where to start
How many days until Easter?
A live countdown to Easter Sunday, the exact dates of Good Friday and Easter Monday, bank-holiday rules across the four UK nations, and family activity ideas to fill the long weekend.
Ideas for making Mother’s Day special
UK Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent — easy to lose track of. We give you the date, breakfast-in-bed ideas, and the small low-faff thoughtful gestures that actually land.
The UK family calendar — what’s coming up
If you’re looking ahead at the year and trying to remember when the bank holidays fall, here’s the rough family-calendar shape we work to. Specific date pages will be added under this hub as we write them.
Spring. Mother’s Day (Mothering Sunday — fourth Sunday of Lent). St David’s Day, St Patrick’s Day. Then Good Friday and Easter Monday, the May Day bank holiday and the Spring bank holiday at the end of May. The May half-term tucks between them.
Summer. Father’s Day (third Sunday of June). The summer school holidays — six weeks in England and Wales, slightly different in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Summer bank holiday at the end of August.
Autumn. The October half-term. Halloween. Bonfire Night on 5 November. Remembrance Sunday. The clocks go back at the end of October.
Winter. The Christmas school holidays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day — covered in detail at our sister site christmascountdown.co.uk. Burns Night (25 January) and Chinese New Year close out the season.
Where this section is heading
This hub will grow into a year-round family calendar with dedicated date pages for each of the moveable feasts and bank-holiday weekends. The next priorities are a UK bank holidays page (currently a gap on the site) and a refresh of Mother’s Day with current-year dates and a stronger gift list. If there’s a date you wish we’d cover, the contact page reaches Linda directly.
Frequently asked questions
When is Easter in the UK this year?
Easter Sunday is calculated as the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox — so it shifts every year. Our live Easter countdown page always shows the current year’s exact Easter Sunday date, plus Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Is Mother’s Day the same date in the UK as the US?
No. UK Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, which usually lands in March. The US celebrates Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May. Two completely different dates — easy to get caught out if you’ve family on both sides of the Atlantic.
Why are Scottish bank holidays different?
Scotland uses a slightly different bank holiday calendar to England, Wales and Northern Ireland — most notably, Easter Monday is not a Scottish bank holiday, while 2 January is. Our individual date pages flag the per-nation rules where they matter.
Where can I find a Christmas countdown?
Our sister site christmascountdown.co.uk runs a year-round live count to 25 December, plus recipes, Advent ideas and the Christmas-school-holiday tracker. We keep Christmas content there so this hub can stay focused on the rest of the UK family calendar.
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