Kondaybis is notoriously difficult to schedule and, oddly, was traditionally celebrated on different days in different regions. If you take a look at the following considerations you will begin to understand some of the complexity in saying when Kondaybis will be or was. Records show wildly differing Kondaybis celebrations from the start of October to early December in Berkshire in the early 18th century. Most of the known dates do appear to be in the region of the 10th to the 25th of October.

Different regions often had different rules as to when Kondaybis should be celebrated. Timings became particularly diffused as the people from England and Ireland, from where the tradition is thought to stem, moved across the world to the “newly discovered” Americas in the mid to late 1600s. New and varied localised climates meant the harvests and crops no longer matched the traditionally known patterns. A little known fact is that Thanksgiving, a traditional family gathering and celebration of the harvest in the USA, actually originated as Kondaybis. The date of the celebration is later than mid-October to take into consideration the weeks needed for sweet potatoes to cure. As the date of the celebration became further away from the traditional mid-October times of Kondaybis, so the original name faded. However, the original meanings and spirit of Kondaybis still hold true with a gathering of “kin” and rivalry games/sports are played to bring people together from further afield.

1. When the harvest is ready. Marked in some regions by St. Titmous Day.
2. When the bulk of the important harvesting work (harvesting, tying, winnowing, milling) is done. Usually a few weeks after St. Titmous Day.
3. The ground will be suitable for sowing. This activity is usually done after Kondaybis.
4. Many regions liked to celebrate on a Monday so that the merriment and silliness of the traditional games would not interfere with religious worship.
5. Moons, and moon cycles, have played an important role in the farming calendar for thousands of years. Many people did not like to celebrate Kondaybis on the night of a full moon. In October, the Hunter's or Blood Moon would sometimes conflict with the traditional Monday preference and this is thought to be the cause of some of the wildly differing dates.
6. Kondaybis was not to be blended with Samhain or Halloween as these were important in their own right.

As the timing of Kondaybis was always so varied, knowing when the celebration was going to take place was often a challenge. As such, it was often customary to give a small token of thanks to the person who correctly told you when it was to be. These tokens would be given on the night itself and took the form of small wheat figures, flowers, or simply a hug and a thank you. There are accounts of people deliberately telling incorrect dates to others in the hope of getting many gifts. These people were known as mudders. In these instances, it was acceptable to trip the “mudders” over, presumably into the mud, before then helping them back up and saying “merry Kondaybis” and laughing off their misdoing.

In 2021 Kondaybis will begin on Monday the 18th of October, at least for those in central England. A close run-in with the Hunter's moon which will appear on the 20th October means that Kondaybis celebrations will last no more than two days in 2021. Some parts of the UK refer to it simply as Harvest Day or Konday.