Google Calendar Users Upset Over Removal of Cultural Observances

Mountain View, California – Google Calendar users are expressing frustration as the platform has removed several significant cultural observances from its default calendar listings, effective mid-2024. Observances such as Black History Month, Pride Month, and Jewish Heritage have been eliminated from the interactive calendar feature, prompting backlash from users who argue that the changes diminish representation.

Reports emerged late last week highlighting the omission of events that were once automatically marked in the calendar, including the start dates of Black History Month in February and LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June for the year 2025. Madison Cushman Veld, a Google spokesperson, explained that the company decided to take a step back from displaying these cultural moments due to sustainability concerns.

“For over a decade we’ve worked with timeanddate.com to show public holidays and national observances in Google Calendar,” Veld said in an email statement. “Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world. We received feedback that some other events and countries were missing — maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently wasn’t scalable or sustainable.”

The tech giant announced that it would now limit the calendar to showing public holidays and national observances sourced from timeanddate.com, allowing users to manually input any additional events that hold personal significance. Critics have taken to social media, voicing concerns that the removal of notable cultural observances reflects a broader trend of diminishing diversity within platforms.

“By not recognizing these events, Google is capitulating to a fascist agenda,” commented one user on Twitter. “This is a huge step backward for representation,” another lamented on a popular online forum. The reactions come amid wider discussions about diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within corporations.

Notably, the criticism of Google’s calendar changes coincides with the company’s recent decisions influenced by shifting political landscapes and directives from the U.S. government. This includes the decision to revert the names of geographical landmarks, such as renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in Google Maps, following executive orders from the Trump administration.

Google has been under scrutiny recently concerning its diversity hiring initiatives and the establishment of the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs, which are now being evaluated for potential scaling back. This context raises questions regarding the intentions behind the removal of cultural observances from their calendar platform.

The changes come at a time when conversations surrounding representation in technology are more crucial than ever. Following the removal of observances from Google Calendar, users wishing to keep track of these important events are required to manually add them back into their schedules.

As of now, it remains unclear whether these calendar changes will affect Google Doodles, which frequently celebrate and acknowledge cultural events. Google did not directly address inquiries about Doodles but stated, “Google continues to actively celebrate and promote cultural moments as a company in our products.”