diff --git a/example/test_calendar.yaml b/example/test_calendar.yaml
index db4f2c5..8901756 100644
--- a/example/test_calendar.yaml
+++ b/example/test_calendar.yaml
@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
+meta:
+  tz: America/Los_Angeles
+
 events:
   - summary: Event of the Century
-    begin: 2021-09-21 15:00:00 -07:00
-    end: 2021-09-21 15:30:00 -07:00
+    begin: 2021-09-21 15:00:00
+    end: 2021-09-21 15:30:00
     description: |
       Meet the team on the northern side of the field.
 
   - summary: Half-an-hour meeting
-    begin: 2021-09-23 15:00:00
+    begin: 2021-09-23 15:00:00 -07:00
     duration:
       minutes: 30
     location: |
diff --git a/tests/test_calendar.py b/tests/test_calendar.py
index 46b9e7e..3240f5b 100644
--- a/tests/test_calendar.py
+++ b/tests/test_calendar.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import datetime
 import io
 import textwrap
 
@@ -28,3 +29,39 @@ def test_calendar_event():
     assert cal_str.startswith('BEGIN:VCALENDAR')
     assert 'SUMMARY:Earth Day' in cal_str
     assert cal_str.endswith('END:VCALENDAR')
+
+def test_calendar_default_timezone():
+    cal = files_to_calendar(
+        [io.StringIO(textwrap.dedent(
+            '''
+            meta:
+              tz: Europe/Helsinki
+
+            events:
+              - summary: New year's day
+                begin: 2022-01-01 00:00:00
+                duration: {hours: 1}
+
+              - summary: February 1
+                begin: 2022-02-01 00:00:00 +02:00
+                duration: {hours: 1}
+            '''
+        ))]
+    )
+    cal_str = cal.serialize()
+    assert cal_str.startswith('BEGIN:VCALENDAR')
+    assert 'SUMMARY:New year' in cal_str
+    # It is possible that the ics-py TZID string changes, but hopefully this
+    # substring is fairly safe to test against.
+    assert 'Europe/Helsinki:20220101T000000' in cal_str
+    # Second event: explicit UTC offset specified.
+    assert '"UTC+02:00":20220201T000000' in cal_str
+    assert cal_str.endswith('END:VCALENDAR')
+
+    # Test again by normalizing to UTC.  Helsinki is two hours ahead, so the
+    # times should be 22:00:00.
+    cal.normalize(datetime.timezone.utc)
+    cal_norm_str = cal.serialize()
+    # 1 Feb midnight
+    assert 'DTSTART:20211231T220000Z' # 1 jan
+    assert 'DTSTART:20220131T220000Z' # 1 feb
diff --git a/yaml2ics.py b/yaml2ics.py
index 7796c60..6aca92b 100644
--- a/yaml2ics.py
+++ b/yaml2ics.py
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 import yaml
 import sys
 import os
-from datetime import datetime
+from datetime import datetime, tzinfo
 
 import ics
 import dateutil
 import dateutil.rrule
+from dateutil.tz import gettz
 
 
 interval_type = {
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@
 }
 
 
-def event_from_yaml(event_yaml: dict) -> ics.Event:
+def event_from_yaml(event_yaml: dict, tz: tzinfo=None) -> ics.Event:
     d = event_yaml
     repeat = d.pop('repeat', None)
 
@@ -73,6 +74,8 @@ def event_from_yaml(event_yaml: dict) -> ics.Event:
             ))
 
     event.dtstamp = datetime.utcnow().replace(tzinfo=dateutil.tz.UTC)
+    if tz and event.floating:
+        event.replace_timezone(tz)
     return event
 
 
@@ -85,13 +88,18 @@ def events_to_calendar(events: list) -> str:
 def files_to_calendar(files: list) -> ics.Calendar:
     """'main' function: list of files to our result"""
     all_events = [ ]
+    name = None
     for f in files:
         if hasattr(f, 'read'):
             calendar_yaml = yaml.load(f.read(), Loader=yaml.FullLoader)
         else:
             calendar_yaml = yaml.load(open(f, 'r'), Loader=yaml.FullLoader)
+        tz = None
+        if 'meta' in calendar_yaml:
+            if 'tz' in calendar_yaml['meta']:
+                tz = gettz(calendar_yaml['meta']['tz'])
         for event in calendar_yaml['events']:
-            all_events.append(event_from_yaml(event))
+            all_events.append(event_from_yaml(event, tz=tz))
     calendar = events_to_calendar(all_events)
     return calendar