How to honour multiple days of significance without missing the mark

By Matisse Hamel-Nelis, ADS, CPACC

As business owners, there are times when you open your calendar and feel overwhelmed. As you scroll, you realize the upcoming month is filled with various days of significance, including overlapping week and month-long events.

Days of significance are moments throughout the year that hold meaning personally, culturally, historically, or socially. They can mark celebrations, commemorations, or calls to action. Think of things like National Indigenous Peoples Day, Pride Month, Remembrance Day, or International Day of Persons with Disabilities. For some, these days are deeply personal. For others, they’re an opportunity to learn, reflect, and show solidarity.

We live in a beautifully rich world with diverse and intersecting identities, causes, and cultures, so it’s not unusual for important observances to overlap.

With so many celebrations, observations, causes, cultures, and important calls to action, it’s common to feel like your calendars are crowded.

It can be tricky for those of us working in communications, marketing, education, or advocacy to find room to recognize these days of significance in an impactful and intentional way.

So, how do we do it?

Overlaps happen and that’s not a bad thing

First, let’s get this out of the way: there’s no “perfect” calendar where every community, cause, and campaign get a dedicated spotlight with no competition for attention. And that’s OK.

There are more than 200 internationally recognized days, weeks, and months of awareness, and that doesn’t include national holidays, religious observances, cultural celebrations, and regional milestones. When dates overlap, it’s not about one issue being more important than another. It’s a reflection of how layered and interconnected our world truly is.

So instead of seeing these overlaps as a problem to solve, we should approach them as opportunities: opportunities to reflect on intersectionality, to engage diverse audiences, and to practice inclusive storytelling.

Be specific. Vague messages help no one.

Let’s start with the most common pitfall: trying to “cover all the bases” with one broad message. You’ve probably seen it before: a post that reads, “We’re proud to support all causes this week.” But support without specificity doesn’t feel supportive. In fact, it often feels like an afterthought.

The truth is, every day of significance has a reason behind it: a story, a struggle, a community. When we try to fold too many of these into a single generic message, we unintentionally flatten those stories. We erase the nuance.

Instead, name the observances you’re recognizing. Acknowledge what they mean to your organization, like aligning with your vision, mission, and values. You don’t have to create a 10-paragraph explainer for each one, but you do have to show that you understand and respect the reasons why these days exist.

For example, “This week, we’re marking both National AccessAbility Week and the start of Pride Month. These moments are rooted in the fight for inclusion and dignity, in this case, 2SLGBTQ+ communities, people with disabilities (visible and invisible) and those living at the intersections of both these identities, which remain urgent today. We’ve put together reflections and resources to explore each of these in more depth.”

This approach shows care, not just content. It makes space for each story, without blending them into a single line on a calendar.

Lived experience should lead the way

When in doubt, turn to the people who have lived experience.

Organizations often default to internal messaging created behind closed doors, without consulting the communities the message is meant to support. That’s how we end up with performative posts that miss the mark.

Instead of guessing or Googling, listen to what people are already saying. Follow community advocates. Share first-person stories. Better yet, invite someone with lived experience to speak, write, or contribute to your content directly.

Authentic storytelling isn’t just more engaging; it’s more ethical. And audiences can tell the difference.

This is especially important when observances intersect. For example, if you’re highlighting both Pride Month and National AccessAbility Week, consider amplifying the voices of 2SLGBTQ+ individuals with disabilities. Their stories don’t live in separate boxes, but rather they reflect the intersections that often go unnoticed and impact how they navigate everyday life.

Plan ahead and plan together

One of the most common reasons organizations struggle with overlapping dates is simple: lack of co-ordination.

Maybe your comms team is planning a Pride campaign while your accessibility office is gearing up for a week of disability inclusion, and neither team knows what the other is doing until the posts go live.

This leads to confusion, duplication, or worse, clashing messages that leave audiences wondering where your organization really is.

To avoid this, build a shared observance calendar. Get different departments, working groups, or affinity networks involved early in the year to flag important dates and brainstorm ways to collaborate. Not every campaign has to be joint, but awareness and alignment go a long way.

When you plan together, you’re more likely to craft thoughtful, layered content that respects the full picture, not just a single piece.

Don’t try to do it all

This might be the most important advice of all: You do not have to recognize every observance, every time, in the same way.

Trying to acknowledge everything can lead to burnout, and to watered-down messaging that doesn’t resonate with anyone.

Instead, choose where you can go deep. Focus on observances that align closely with your mission, your community, or your team’s lived experiences. If there’s an observance your organization isn’t equipped to speak on meaningfully, that’s OK. You can still acknowledge it and uplift others who are doing the work.

Think about your capacity. Think about your credibility. And remember quality over quantity always wins.

Here’s an additional thing to think about: If you’re not the right voice, be a megaphone. Share content from community organizations, educators, or activists who are already doing meaningful work. That’s still a powerful way to show solidarity.

Give observances breathing room

Just because two (or three or four) important dates fall at the same time doesn’t mean your content has to.

Stretch your storytelling. If you’re observing a week-long campaign and a month-long initiative, you’ve got room to spotlight each on different days. Or you might choose to extend recognition into the following week to give each one the attention it deserves.

The important thing is to make space. Overlapping dates don’t mean the observances need to compete for attention, your approach just needs to be more intentional.

By spacing out your content, you avoid crowding the conversation and allow people to truly engage.

It’s OK to learn as you go

Even with the best intentions and planning, things won’t always go perfectly. Maybe you miss an observance you meant to recognize. Maybe someone calls out a post for being incomplete or inauthentic. Maybe your messaging misses a crucial nuance.

That’s OK. This work isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress, humility, and the willingness to listen and do better next time.

The key is to treat feedback as a gift, not a threat. Respond with curiosity, not defensiveness. Say thank you. Make the change. Move forward.

People can tell when your efforts are genuine. They can also tell when they’re not. So, be honest about where you are, and stay open to the journey ahead.

All of this to say…

When important days fall on the same date, or the same week, it can feel overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be.

You don’t need to choose one observance over another. You don’t need to cram everything into a single post. And you definitely don’t need to be perfect.

You just need to care.

Care enough to plan.

Care enough to listen.

Care enough to honour each story, not just the hashtag attached to it.

Because when we take the time to recognize people, and I mean really recognize them, we build trust. We build belonging. And we show up in ways that actually matter.