A holiday calendar subscription is an ICS feed your calendar app checks for updates. You add it once; when the publisher refreshes dates, your app can pull the change without you re-downloading a file. That is different from importing a static CSV or screenshot of dates.
AnyCalendar publishes country holiday feeds and related calendars you can open from the Subscribe page. This guide focuses on the three apps people actually use day to day—Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook—and the failure modes that waste a Saturday afternoon.
Before you subscribe
Decide which country list you need. A U.S. federal holiday feed will not include UK bank holidays or Canadian provincial days. If you work across borders, subscribe to more than one feed instead of hunting for a single “world holidays” calendar that pretends every country shares the same rules.
Prefer a subscribe URL (webcal or https ICS) over a one-time download when you want next year’s dates to appear automatically. A downloaded .ics file is a snapshot; a subscription is a live pointer.
- Know whether you need federal-only dates or broader observances.
- Use a personal calendar account you control—do not paste feeds into a shared work calendar without IT approval.
- Keep the vendor’s subscribe page bookmarked so you can re-copy the URL if an app drops the feed.
Google Calendar (web)
On a computer, open Google Calendar → Settings → Add calendar → From URL. Paste the ICS link from AnyCalendar’s Subscribe page. Google will fetch the feed and show it under “Other calendars.” Toggle visibility like any other calendar layer.
On Android, the same subscribed calendar usually appears after sync. If it does not, open the Google Calendar app menu, confirm the calendar is checked, and give sync a few minutes. Google’s refresh interval is not instant; do not delete and re-add every hour expecting real-time edits.
Apple Calendar (iPhone, iPad, Mac)
The cleanest path is to tap or click a webcal link from Safari, then confirm “Subscribe.” On Mac you can also use File → New Calendar Subscription and paste the URL. Set the auto-refresh interval to weekly or daily depending on how often you care about corrections.
Subscribed calendars are often read-only overlays. That is expected: you should not edit a public holiday feed as if it were your personal events. Create your own calendar for PTO blocks that sit next to the holiday layer.
Outlook (Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com)
In Outlook on the web, open the calendar view → Add calendar → Subscribe from web, then paste the ICS URL. Desktop Outlook for Windows may use Account Settings → Internet Calendars depending on your build; Microsoft moves the label occasionally, so search Settings for “Internet calendar” if the menu moved.
Corporate Outlook can block external ICS subscriptions. If the button is missing or the feed fails, ask IT whether internet calendars are allowed. A workaround some teams use is importing a yearly file into a personal calendar—but that will not auto-update.
Common mistakes
Mixing up subscribe and import is the top failure. Import duplicates dates and goes stale. Subscribe keeps one linked calendar.
Another mistake is treating every “holiday” label as a day off. Federal status, school closures, and private employer lists diverge. Use the feed for awareness, then confirm closures on the institution’s own calendar when money or travel is on the line.
- Do not subscribe the same feed twice under two names—you will see duplicate events.
- If dates look wrong, check the country code on the feed, not only the calendar display name.
- After DST changes, refresh the app; most holiday all-day events are date-based, but sync glitches still happen.
FAQ
Will next year’s holidays appear automatically?
If you used a subscription URL and the publisher keeps the feed updated, your app should pull newer years on its refresh cycle. A one-time imported file will not.
Can I subscribe on my phone only?
Yes. Apple users can subscribe from Safari on iPhone. Google users often find the From URL path easiest on the web, then sync to mobile. Outlook mobile support for arbitrary ICS URLs varies by account type.
Is an ICS feed the same as Google’s built-in holidays?
No. Google ships its own holiday layers. A third-party ICS feed is a separate calendar you control and can remove without touching Google’s defaults.