How to Subscribe to Holiday Calendars on iPhone and Android

A holiday page is useful when you are planning a trip or checking a specific date. A subscribed calendar is useful when you want the same information to appear inside the calendar app you already use every day.

BaseToolbox holiday pages now provide two calendar options:

• Subscribe to a live ICS feed for the region. This is best when you want future updates to appear in the same calendar subscription.
• Download this year as ICS for a one-time import. This is best when you want a static copy of one year and do not need automatic updates.

The difference matters. A subscribed calendar stays connected to the URL. An imported ICS file creates events once; if the source changes later, your imported copy will not update automatically.

What the ICS file includes

The holiday calendar feed includes all-day events for the dates in the selected region dataset. When the source provides adjusted schedules, the feed includes both:

| Event type | What appears in your calendar | Why it matters | | ---------------- | --------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | Holiday days off | Holiday: New Year's Day or 休 元旦 | These are the dates you generally treat as days off. | | Adjusted workday | Workday adjustment: ... or 班 ...调休上班 | These are weekend dates that may become workdays. |

For China Mainland, this distinction is important because long holiday breaks often include nearby weekend workdays. If you only import the days off, you can miss the Saturday or Sunday that was moved into the working schedule.

iPhone and Mac: use Subscribe

On iPhone or Mac, the easiest path is usually the Subscribe button on the holiday page. It opens a webcal: calendar subscription link. Apple Calendar can then add the feed as a subscribed calendar.

Use subscription when you want a read-only calendar that can refresh later. If a future year is added to the same regional feed, the subscription URL can keep working without you downloading a new file.

If the subscribe button does not open your preferred calendar app, use Copy URL instead. Then add a subscribed calendar manually and paste the URL.

Google Calendar and Android: copy the URL

Google Calendar supports calendar subscriptions by URL, but the mobile app is not the best place to add a new URL feed. The reliable workflow is:

1. Open Google Calendar in a desktop browser.
2. Use the option to add a calendar from a URL.
3. Paste the BaseToolbox holiday calendar URL.
4. Wait for Google Calendar to sync it to your Android phone.

After that, the subscribed calendar should appear in Google Calendar on Android as part of your Google account calendars.

This is less convenient than Apple Calendar, but it avoids pretending there is a universal Android system calendar subscription button. Android calendar behavior depends heavily on the calendar app and account provider.

When to download the yearly ICS file

Use the downloaded yearly ICS file when you want a one-time copy. This can be useful for:

• importing a single year into a work calendar that does not allow subscriptions;
• keeping a fixed snapshot for a travel plan;
• sharing a one-year file with someone who does not want a live feed;
• testing whether your calendar app understands the events correctly.

The trade-off is that imported events are static. If a holiday notice changes, or if a new year is added later, you need to import a fresh file.

Subscription checklist

Before relying on a holiday calendar subscription for travel, payroll, school, or staffing decisions, check these points:

| Check | Why it matters | | ------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Region | National, regional, statutory, school, and company holidays can differ. | | Event labels | Make sure your calendar shows adjusted workdays as workdays, not holidays. | | Refresh behavior | Calendar apps refresh subscriptions on their own schedule. | | Source and verification date | High-stakes plans should still be checked against the listed source. | | Imported versus subscribed copy | Imported files do not update automatically. |

The calendar feed is a planning tool, not a legal or employment authority. For costly travel, contract dates, payroll, exams, or government procedures, use the holiday page source panel to confirm the official notice behind the calendar.

Practical recommendation

Use Subscribe for the calendar you want to keep, especially on iPhone or Mac. Use Copy URL for Google Calendar and Android. Use Download ICS when you only need one year or your calendar provider blocks subscriptions.

If you are checking a region with adjusted workdays, open the holiday page first and confirm what the feed contains. Then add the subscription so those dates appear where your daily schedule already lives.