National Awareness Days and Celebrations 2024

National awareness days provide businesses with a valuable opportunity to connect with their audience on a deeper level while supporting important causes. By aligning your brand with relevant awareness months, you can raise awareness, foster engagement, and build loyalty among your customers. Make use of these designated months to create compelling content, organise events or promotions, and collaborate with relevant organisations. Whether it's silly dates like national cat day or serious and emotive days and month such as Mental Health Awareness Month, Women’s History Month, or Pride Month, you can leverage the power of national awareness days and months to make a meaningful impact and showcase your commitment to social issues.

We’ve collated a full and comprehensive list of awareness days in the UK for 2024, but why do we celebrate them? Awareness days are celebrated to bring attention to important social, health, and environmental issues. They serve as a platform to educate and inform the public about these topics. By dedicating a specific day to raise awareness, it helps create a collective consciousness and encourages people to take action. These days also provide an opportunity for organisations, NGOs, and individuals to come together and advocate for change, raise funds for research, promote prevention, and support communities affected by these issues. Ultimately, celebrating awareness days fosters a sense of unity and empowers individuals to make a positive impact.

Because awareness days are designed to highlight important causes and promote education and understanding, they can be effective in spreading awareness and improve your brand’s overall image. Events like awareness months and days provide a designated time for individuals, communities, and organisations to rally their reach and impact. Additionally, awareness days can encourage conversations, spark engagement, and inspire change. Their effectiveness ultimately depends on sustained efforts beyond the designated day, such as ongoing advocacy, support, and implementation of solutions. And when businesses authentically support causes, it helps build trust and loyalty among customers, attracts socially conscious consumers, improves brand reputation, and contributes to positive social impact.

How many national days are there in the UK? There are nearly 80 UK awareness days, and they are the perfect vehicle for promoting what you do and showcasing your political standpoint as a business. National days are an opportunity to show a more creative side to your company, they’re a fantastic way to communicate with potential clients and they can be an excellent opportunity for gifting and PR opportunities. They also give customers something tangible to talk about on social media.

Knowing when UK and international awareness days in 2024 fall not only allows you to plan your promotional campaigns, but provides an opportunity for staff members to engage in something while raising awareness of workplace concerns, like mental health and green initiatives. Not every awareness day will work for your business, so you need to select causes that resonate with you as a business or individual.

Dry January and Veganuary. January is the perfect time to add an additional food and cocktail menu to your bistro or restaurant offering with non-alcoholic drinks and animal free food options. Dry January and Veganuary have become really popular in recent years, so if you own a bar, pub, restaurant or café, you can use this to promote your business and increase sales in one of the quieter months of the year.

2nd January: World Introvert Day
4th January: World Braille Day
11th January: Human Trafficking Awareness Day
15th January: Martin Luther King Day and Blue Monday (one of the UKs mental health awareness days)
21st January: World Religion Day
22nd January: Cervical Cancer Prevention Week
24th January: International Day of Education
25th January: Burns Night (Scotland)
27th January: Holocaust Memorial Day
30th January: World Leprosy Day

Black History Month (U.S.) and LGBTQ+ History Month. Two very important causes and a great opportunity to get involved and raise awareness. Showing support for minority groups and recognising the fight for equality, equity, and diversity.

2nd February: Time to Talk Day
(Another of the mental health awareness days of 2024 where conversations around mental health and the challenges poor mental health can bring are encouraged at work and at home).
4th February: World Cancer Day
5th February: Race Equality Week
5th February: National Apprenticeship Week
6th February: Reclaim Social Day, Safer Internet Day and International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM.
10th February: Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year
13th February: Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) and Galentine’s day
14th February: Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday
20th February: National Love Your Pet Day and World Day of Social Justice
29th February: Rare Disease Day

1st March: International Wheelchair Day and Zero Discrimination Day
3rd March: World Hearing Day and World Wildlife Day
7th March: World Book Day
8th March: International Women’s Day
10th March: Mother’s Day and the Start of Ramadan
16th March: Disabled Access Day
18th March: Global Recycling Day
20th March: International Day of Happiness
21st March: World Down Syndrome Day
22nd March: World Water Day
23rd March: Earth Hour Day
25th March: Holi
27th March to 2nd April: World Autism Acceptance Week
29th March: Good Friday (Bank holiday, UK)
31st March: International Trans Visibility Day and Easter Sunday

1st April: April Fool’s Day and Easter Monday (Bank holiday, UK)
2nd April: World Autism Awareness Day and International Children’s Book Day
7th April: World Health Day and World Book Day
8th April: Ramadan ends
10th April: Siblings Day and Eid al-Fitr
11th April: World Parkinson’s Day
13th April to 20th April: MS Awareness Week
15th April: World Art Day
21st April: National Tea Day
22nd April: Earth Day, Stephen Lawrence Day and Passover begins
22nd April – 29th April: Lesbian Visibility Week
23rd April: St. George’s Day
25th April: World Malaria Day and National Hug a Plumber Day

Celiac Awareness Month

1st May: May Day
2nd May: World Password Day
3rd May: World Press Freedom Day
4th May: Star Wars Day
5th May: International Family Equality Day and African World Heritage Day
10th May: World Lupus Day
11th May: Fair Trade Day
12th May: International Nurses Day
13th to 20th May: Mental Health Awareness Week
16th May: Global Accessibility Awareness Day
17th May: Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia
18th May: International Museum Day
19th May: Endangered Species Day
20th May: National Rescue Dog Day
24th May: World Schizophrenia Day
28th May: World Blood Cancer Day
30th May: World MS Day

1st June: World Reef Awareness Day
1st to 8th June: Volunteers’ Week
2nd June: National Cancer Survivor’s Day
5th June: World Environment Day
5th to 11th June: National Gardening Week
If you own a gardening business, what better time to highlight your services? Create flyers, posters or quality business cards and take advantage of the national awareness week.
6th June: D-Day
8th June: World Oceans Day and Parents’ Day
14th June: World Blood Donor Day
16th June: Fathers’ Day and Eid Al-Adha
17th to 24th June: Learning Disability Week
18th June: Autistic Pride Day
20th June: World Refugee Day
22nd June: World Rainforest Day
23rd June: International Women in Engineering Day
27th June: National PTSD Awareness Day

1st July: International Joke Day
4th July: American Independence Day
7th July: World Chocolate Day.
It would be rude not to celebrate, wouldn’t it? If you own a café or a shop or you sell artisan chocolate, make sure you have a range of promotional materials to link in with this day, like our personalised chocolate bars.
17th July: National Ice Cream Day
28th July: World Hepatitis Day
30th July: International Friendship Day

1st August: Yorkshire Day
8th August: International Cat Day
9th August: Book Lovers Day and International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
12th August: International Youth Day
19th August: World Humanitarian Day
22nd August: International Day commemorating the victims of acts of violence based on religion or belief
23rd August: International Day for the remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition
26th August: International Dog Day
31st August: International Overdose Awareness Day

1st September: World Letter Writing Day
4th September: World Sexual Health Day
5th September: International Day of Charity
6th September: National Food Bank Day
7th September: Ganesh Chaturthi
8th September: International Literacy Day
10th September: World Suicide Prevention Day
11th September: Yom Kippur
13th September: Stand Up To Cancer Day
15th to 22nd September: International Week of the Deaf
18th September: International Equal Pay Day
21st September: International Day of Peace and World Alzheimer’s Day
23rd September: Bisexual Visibility Day and International Day of Sign Languages
27th September: McMillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning.
Put your fundraising skills to the test for this most worthy cause invest in personalised badges and selfie frames for your fundraising event.
29th September: World Heart Day and International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste

Black History Month (U.K.), Stoptober (where smokers try to quit for one month), Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

1st October: World Vegetarian Day
2nd October: International Day of Non-Violence and World Financial Planning Day
4th October: World Animal Day
5th October: World Teachers Day
7th October: National Poetry Day
10th October: World Mental Health Day, World Homeless Day, and World Sight Day
11th October: International Day of the Girl
12th October: World Hospice and Palliative Care Day
16th October: World Food Day
17th October: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
24th October: United Nations Day
29th October: World Stroke Day
31st October: Halloween and the Start of Diwali

Movember

1st November: World Vegan Day
3rd to 10th November: Organ Donation Week
5th November: World Tsunami Awareness Day 2024 and bonfire Night
7th to 14th November: Trustees Week
9th November: World Adoption Day and Social Media Kindness Day
11th November: Armistice Day
12th November: Remembrance Sunday
13th November: World Kindness Day
14th November: World Diabetes Day
15th November: National Philanthropy Day
16th November: International Day for Tolerance
20th November: World Children’s Day and Transgender Day of Remembrance
25th November: International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

1st December: World AIDS Day and Tree Dressing Day
2nd December: International Day for the Abolition of Slavery and Cyber Monday
3rd December: International Day for Disabilities
4th December: Wildlife Conservation Day and Small Business Saturday
5th December: International Volunteer Day
9th December: International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide
10th December: Human Rights Day
13th December: Christmas Jumper Day
20th December: International Human Solidarity Day
25th December: Christmas Day and the First day of Hannukah
26th December: Boxing Day
31st December: New Year’s Eve

The following awareness months are important to note for businesses that want to connect with their local community and customer bases:

January: Dry January / Veganuary
Get new menus printed such as a vegan and non-alcoholic cocktail menu and take the opportunity to let people know about it by sending out leaflets.
February: LGBTQIA+ History Month
A chance to show your support for the LGBTQ+ community and highlight any work you have done to become a more inclusive and diverse workplace.
March: Women’s History Month / Disability Awareness Month
April: Stress Awareness Month
May: National Walking Month
June: Pride Month
July: Plastic-Free July
Discover our recycled and eco-friendly range of products for any events you’ll hold around this time.
August: International Happiness Happens Month
September: / Organic September / World Alzheimer’s Disease Month
October: Black History Month / Stoptober / Breast Cancer Awareness
November: Movember
December: Decembeard

Our promotional products can effectively support your business's efforts during 2024 awareness days in the UK . With custom branding options, high-quality products, and strategic messaging, we can help you make a lasting impression and contribute to meaningful causes. Be aware of upcoming awareness days and explore our full range today to create memorable campaigns that customers will never forget.