Jan 3, 2022 starts an event called darking of tristam, if you manually set your console date to that day, you can get a jump on the event
I just did it on my ps5 since I need to complete that on PC and needed a refresher.
Also, if you play a seasonal character during that time frame - you will get a TON and i mean a TON of shards… i got 19 of them from the butcher! 19!! lol i think the game is bugged, I believe you have to make a non seasonal level 1 character to start the full event (theres a special achievement or maybe item you get, i cant remember)