Eid Al Etihad on the 2nd and 3rd of December marks the formation of the federation in 1971 and the joining of Ras Al Khaimah the year after, and it is the only two-day holiday fixed to a date on the UAE calendar. Commemoration Day on the 1st is observed nationally with a silence at 11 am, flags at half mast and readings in schools, and it remains a working day.
Leave in December 2028 is the most contested of the year. The national holiday at the start, the school winter break at the end and the weather in between put the whole country's annual leave into the same four weeks, and the last fortnight of December is the hardest stretch of the twelve months to arrange cover for.
The move from December into January changes very little on the ground: the weather holds, the visitors stay and the terraces stay full. What changes is the paperwork — December 2028 closes the reporting year, and everything measured annually starts again from the 1st.