Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Holidays and Special Events Calendar
Find out when it's all happening.
Holidays and Special Events in Animal Crossing: New Horizons are unique days, weekends or weeks which will feature exclusive activities, interactions, and rewards. In this guide you will find a list of all their dates.
Holiday and Special Events in Animal Crossing can totally alter the island, introduce limited time villagers, and plenty more. They’re a big deal, and a chance to collect some one of a kind items for your pad, so it’s definitely worth jotting them down in your calendar in anticipation.
Some events play on real life, for example, Toy Day mimics Christmas while the dreaded Bunny Day equates to Easter in the Animal Crossing universe. Others like the Fishing Tourney add some extra flavour to current in-game activities, and give players a chance to earn some unique loot. These smaller events take place every few weeks or so, while those based on real life only swing round very rarely.
In this guide you’ll find a list of all the key holidays and special events. If anything gets added, or we stumble into something particularly rare, we’ll update this section as soon as we can. Finally, do let us know if we’ve missed anything!
Holidays and Special Events Calendar – Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Here’s a list of all the holidays sprinkled throughout this year, but bear in mind that all of the special events below are solely based on those from Animal Crossing: New Leaf. With this mind, it’s likely they may not occur, may change slightly, or even be replaced by entirely new events! This is why we’ve not filled out the ‘description’ sections as we can’t be certain exactly how island life will impact them.
We’ll be sure to update this section over the course of the year to ensure everything is as accurate as possible.
Special thanks to thonky’s Animal Crossing: New Leaf calendar for all the info. Be sure to visit their site for plenty more in-depth information on the game!
| Event | Date | Region/s | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | January 1st | All | – |
| Fishing Tourney | Third Saturday in January | All | – |
| Lunar New Moon | Date varies in January | Korea | – |
| Groundhog Day | February 2nd | North America | – |
| Setsubun | February 3rd | Japan | – |
| Fishing Tourney | Second Saturday in February | All | – |
| Great Full Moon | February 8th | Korea | – |
| Valentine’s Day | February 14th | All | – |
| Rainbow Season | February 25th – November 25th | All | – |
| Leap Day | February 29th | All | – |
| Hina Matsuri | March 1st | Japan | – |
| Fishing Tourney | Third Saturday in March | All | – |
| Shamrock Day | March 17th | Europe and North America | – |
| Father’s Day | January 1st | All | – |
| Mother’s Day | March 22nd | All | – |
| Bunny Day (Easter) | April 1st (Actual day is 12th, activities start on this day.) | All | It’s gone until next April. It’s over. You can breathe again. |
| Cherry Blossoms | April 1st – 10th | Northern Hemisphere | – |
| Arbor Day | April 5th | Korea | – |
| Plant Colour Change | April 6th | All | – |
| Fishing Tourney | Second Saturday in April | All | – |
| Nature Day | April 23rd – May 4th | All | Special Nook Miles+ rewards available for doing eco-friendly activities like planting shrubs. Leif will arrive more during this period, so grab the bushes and non-native flowers when you can. |
| May Day | May 1st – 7th | All | Redeem your May Day Ticket at the airport and you’ll be whisked away on a special island tour. It’ll feature a new challenge, rewards, and a meeting with an old friend… |
| International Museum Day | May 18th – 31st | All | Blathers will hold ‘stamp rallies’, where you’ll need to collect three stamps from each museum exhibit to win a prize. |
| Fishing Tourney | Third Saturday in May | All | – |
| Wedding Season | June 1st – 30th | All | You can head over to Harv’s island to take sweet wedding photos of Reese and Cyrus this month. |
| Bug Off | Third Saturday in June | All | – |
| Summer Solstice | June 20th | All | – |
| Tanabata | July 7th | Japan | – |
| Tanning Season | July 16th – 15th September | All | – |
| Summer | Third Saturday in July | All | – |
| Bug Off | Third Saturday in July | All | – |
| Big Cloud Season | August | All | – |
| Fireworks Display | Every Sunday in August | All | – |
| Shaved Ice | August 8th | All | – |
| Obon | August 13th – 15th | Japan | – |
| Bug Off | Third Saturday in August | All | – |
| Weeding Day | September 3rd | Japan | – |
| Labor Day | September 7th | North America | – |
| Bug Off | Third Saturday in September | All | – |
| Cherry Blossoms | October 1st – 10th | Southern Hemisphere | – |
| Halloween Items | October | All | – |
| Otsukimi | October 1st | Japan | – |
| Chuseok | October 1st | Korea | – |
| Autumn Moon | October 1st | Europe and North America | – |
| Explorer’s Day | Second Monday in October | North America | – |
| Fishing Tourney | Second Saturday in October | All | – |
| Halloween | October 31st | All | – |
| Mushroom Season | November | All | – |
| Harvest Series Season | November 1st – Fourth Thursday in November | All | – |
| Winter | November 6th or 7th | All | – |
| Fishing Tourney | Third Saturday in November | All | – |
| Harvest Festival | Fourth Thursday in November | All | – |
| Festive Furniture Season | December 1st – 23rd | All | – |
| Gift Hint Season | December 1st – 23rd | All | – |
| Santa Clothing Season | December 1st – 24th | All | – |
| Festive Accessories Season | December | All | – |
| Snowflakes Season | December 1st – February 24th | All | – |
| Naughty-or-Nice Day | December 6th | Europe | – |
| Fishing Tourney | Second Saturday in December | Europe | – |
| Blizzard | December 10th | All | – |
| Snow Season | December 11th – 30th | All | – |
| Aurora Season | December 11th – February 24th | All | – |
| Snowball Season | December 11th – February 24th | All | – |
| Decorated Pine Tree Season | December 15th – January 3rd | All | – |
| Winter Solstice | December 21st | All | – |
| Toy Day | December 24th | All | – |
| New Year’s Countdown | December 31st | All | – |
Latest Event – International Museum Day!
Sporting a slightly misleading event title, this lasts from May 18th to May 31st, so you’ll have plenty of time to hoover up what’s on offer.
When it kicks off, you’ll visit Blathers in the Museum who’ll invite you to take part in the Stamp Rally he’s holding.
Teaser for this event begins from 1:14.
Essentially, you’ll need to wander around the fish, bug, and fossil museum exhibits and seek out three special stamp machines in each. Once you’ve found one, interact with it to collect its stamp. Collected all three? Then speak to Blathers and he’ll gift you a special themed plaque (fish, bug, fossil) which you can pin up at home.
And that’s pretty much it. You’ve got plenty of time to complete this activity, so there’s no rush!
We’ve got all kinds of Animal Crossing guides if you’re struggling too – check out our page on how to earn bells quickly, as well as tips for getting as many Nook Miles as possible.
