Dates and times are written differently here. Getting them right avoids missed appointments and wrong forms.
11/02/2026 means November 2, 2026, not February 11.
Official forms often say MM/DD/YYYY. Write your birth date that way.
To avoid confusion, write the month as a word in emails: "Nov 2" or "2 November".
AM is midnight to noon. PM is noon to midnight.
12:00 PM is noon. 12:00 AM is midnight.
7:30 PM is 19:30. Your phone can show either; schedules and tickets use AM/PM.
The mainland has four zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific. Alaska and Hawaii have their own. New York is 3 hours ahead of California. When someone says "3 p.m. ET", that means Eastern Time. Check the time zone on online meetings and flight times.
Most of the US moves clocks:
Forward one hour on the second Sunday in March ("spring forward").
Back one hour on the first Sunday in November ("fall back"). In 2026 this happened on November 1.
The next change is on March 14, 2027.
Hawaii and most of Arizona do not change their clocks. Phones change automatically; oven and car clocks do not. Congress has discussed ending clock changes, but as of November 2026 the twice-a-year change continues.
Federal offices, banks and post offices close on these days. Many private employers give some of them off, but they do not have to.
New Year's Day (January 1)
Martin Luther King Jr. Day (third Monday in January)
Washington's Birthday, often called Presidents Day (third Monday in February)
Memorial Day (last Monday in May)
Independence Day (July 4)
Labor Day (first Monday in September)
Columbus Day (second Monday in October; many places call it Indigenous Peoples' Day)
Veterans Day (November 11)
Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November; in 2026, November 26)
Christmas Day (December 25)
If a holiday falls on a weekend, the day off usually moves to the nearest Friday or Monday.
Other days you will notice
Halloween (October 31, children in costumes ask for candy at doors), Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day, and many religious and cultural holidays. Schools set their own calendars.
Writing your date of birth day-first on a US form.
Booking a meeting with someone in another state without checking the time zone.
Expecting the bank or USCIS to work on a federal holiday.