Some Religious Holidays Mysteriously Vanish from iOS 11.2.5 Calendar App

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Amid the rollout of its iOS 11.2.5 software update, some iPhone users are complaining that a number of Christian and Jewish holidays are mysteriously absent from Apple’s mobile calendar app, according to multiple media reports.

It’s unclear at this time, however, if the omission of certain Judeo-Christian holidays (including Easter Sunday and Good Friday) is the result of a software glitch, or some kind of conspiracy. But their absence, for many customers, prompted a whirlwind of outcry over on Apple’s official support forums this weekend.

“How come Easter isn’t showing up on my calander [sic] but all the other holidays are?” one user posted, initiating the discussion, while another subsequently claimed Apple support informed them that the holiday had been removed intentionally.

Easter Sunday — the culmination of a week-long celebration commemorating the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ — falls out on April 1, 2018. However the holiday does not appear on some user’s calendars in the latest iOS update — even though it was interestingly present in the previous version of iOS 11.2.2.

Default iOS calendar settings include U.S. holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and Independence Day, and users even have the option to customize their calendars by adding a range of ‘Alternate Calendars’, including Chinese, Hebrew, Islamic and many more.

A Christian Calendar, however, is absent from this list in iOS 11.2.5.

Christianity is the world’s largest religion, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey which estimated that around 2.3 billion of the world’s 7.6 billion inhabitants follow it.

In addition, Apple’s Hebrew calendar doesn’t appear to show major Jewish holidays, such as Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah — however it does show the markers for Rosh Chodesh.

Multiple media outlets, including FOX, Breitbart, and LifeSite News, have reached out to Apple for comment, but the company has yet to respond as of Tuesday morning.

It’s highly likely, given the inclusion of other Christian holidays like Christmas and Christmas Eve, that the absence of Easter and other key dates is merely a software glitch due to the annually-changing nature of the date Easter Sunday falls on — however we’ll just have to wait for Apple’s acknowledgment until we know for sure.

Learn More: 5 Excellent iPhone and iPad Calendar Apps You Have to Try

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