UK awareness days and key dates

Friday 1 January 2027

• New Year's Day bank holiday

  Public holidays

  A bank holiday across the UK.

Monday 4 January 2027

• 2nd January bank holiday

  Public holidays

  A bank holiday in Scotland.

• World Braille Day

  Awareness

  World Braille Day on 4 January highlights braille as an essential means of communication for blind and partially sighted people.

Wednesday 6 January 2027

• Epiphany

  Religious and cultural

  Epiphany on 6 January is the Christian feast marking the visit of the Magi and the revealing of Jesus to the wider world.

Thursday 14 January 2027

• Makar Sankranti

  Religious and cultural

  Makar Sankranti is a Hindu harvest festival in mid-January marking the sun's move into Capricorn, known as Uttarayan in Gujarat.

• World Logic Day

  Awareness

  A UNESCO day on 14 January that celebrates logic and its place in science, technology and everyday reasoning.

Friday 15 January 2027

• Guru Gobind Singh Gurpurab

  Religious and cultural

  Guru Gobind Singh Gurpurab marks the birth of the tenth Sikh Guru, falling on 15 January 2027 in the SGPC calendar.

Monday 18 January 2027

• Brew Monday

  Awareness

  A UK day on the third Monday of January that encourages people to meet for a cup of tea and talk, in place of so-called Blue Monday.

• Cervical Cancer Prevention Week

  Awareness18 to 24 January 2027

  A UK week in January that promotes HPV vaccination and cervical screening as ways to prevent cervical cancer.

• Energy Savers Week

  Awareness18 to 24 January 2027

  A January week run by the Energy Saving Trust and Citizens Advice with simple tips to cut home energy use and bills.

• Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

  Religious and cultural18 to 25 January 2027

  Observed from 18 to 25 January, when churches of different traditions pray together for Christian unity.

Friday 22 January 2027

• Big Garden Birdwatch

  Awareness22 to 24 January 2027

  The RSPB's annual weekend survey in late January when people count the birds in their garden or local green space for an hour.

Saturday 23 January 2027

• Tu BiShvat

  Religious and cultural

  Tu BiShvat, on 15 Shevat in the Jewish calendar, is the new year for trees, often marked by eating fruit and planting trees.

Sunday 24 January 2027

• International Day of Education

  Awareness

  The International Day of Education on 24 January celebrates the role of education in peace, development and fairer societies.

Monday 25 January 2027

• Burns Night

  Religious and cultural

  An evening on 25 January celebrating Scotland's national poet Robert Burns with suppers, haggis and readings of his work.

• St Dwynwen's Day

  Religious and cultural

  Celebrated in Wales on 25 January, St Dwynwen's Day honours the Welsh patron saint of lovers and is often called the Welsh Valentine's Day.

Tuesday 26 January 2027

• International Day of Clean Energy

  Awareness

  The International Day of Clean Energy on 26 January calls for a fair and inclusive move away from fossil fuels towards clean energy.

• Up Helly Aa (Lerwick)

  Religious and cultural

  Shetland's fire festival in Lerwick, held in late January, with a torchlit procession and the burning of a replica Viking galley.

Wednesday 27 January 2027

• Holocaust Memorial Day

  Awareness

  A day on 27 January to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and the victims of Nazi persecution and later genocides.

• International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

  Awareness

  On 27 January the UN remembers the victims of the Holocaust, marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945.

Thursday 28 January 2027

• Data Protection Day

  Awareness

  Marked on 28 January to raise awareness of personal data protection and privacy rights, and known in some countries as Privacy Day.

• International Day of Peaceful Coexistence

  Awareness

  The International Day of Peaceful Coexistence on 28 January promotes tolerance, respect for diversity and peace through education and dialogue.

Saturday 30 January 2027

• National Storytelling Week

  Awareness30 January to 7 February 2027

  A UK celebration of oral storytelling that starts on the last Saturday of January, running from 31 January to 8 February in 2026.

• World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day

  Awareness

  A global day on 30 January that calls for action to end neglected tropical diseases, which affect more than a billion people.

Sunday 31 January 2027

• World Leprosy Day

  Awareness

  An international day on the last Sunday of January that raises awareness of leprosy and the stigma faced by people affected by it.