How many days until Children's Day?

Emirati Children's Day falls on 15 March, and unlike most dates in this section it is specifically national rather than imported. It marks the issuing of the child protection law of 2016, known as Wadeema's Law after the case that prompted it, and it is observed by schools, hospitals, government bodies and cultural institutions across the country.

It is not a public holiday and no working hours change, but it is visible: schools run activities and awareness sessions, museums and libraries organise programmes for the day, and public bodies publish campaigns about the rights the law established. The tone is closer to a national awareness date than to a gift-giving occasion, which distinguishes it from the international children's day marked in November elsewhere in the world.

Mid-March is also a comfortable time of year to hold anything outdoors — daytime temperatures in the high twenties, the evenings still cool — which is why so many of the events around it happen in parks and open spaces rather than in halls. It sits six days before Mother's Day on 21 March, so the two fall in the same fortnight.

The countdown runs to the start of 15 March and resets automatically for the following year.