Here’s how the world will be marking a fresh beginning as we kiss goodbye to the last 12 months and vow to be better versions of ourselves – for at least the first week, anyway.
What day will New Year's Day 2019 be and will January 1 be a bank holiday?
New Year’s Day will fall on a Tuesday in 2019 and it will be a Bank Holiday across the entire UK.
This means for most of us, it’ll be a day off work – a good thing considering the nation will most likely be hungover.
If you’re in Scotland, you’ll get an extra day off on January 2, 2019, as the country also has a New Year Holiday.
On New Year’s Eve, there will be global festivities and fireworks as people welcome 2019 in with style across 24 time zones.
Samoa, Tonga and Kiritimati, part of the 33 Kiribati islands in the Pacific Ocean Polynesian Triangle, will be the first places to welcome the new year at 10am UK time on New Year's Eve.
American Samoa and Baker Island in the United States of America are among the last to mark the end of the 12-months of the year.
In Scotland, New Year’s Eve is called Hogmanay and marks the second of three days of celebrations to welcome in a new year.
Celebrations begin with the Torchlight procession on December 30 – which sees around 40,000 people walk through the Scottish capital – and continue through to the “Loony Dook” on New Year’s Day.
How do you say happy new year in different languages?
Impress your friends around the world with our guide to saying Happy New Year in 16 languages:
- Chinese Mandarin – Xin Nian Kuai Le – (pronounced sheen nian kwai luh)
- Chinese Cantonese – San Nin Fai Lok – (pronounced san knee fy lock)
- Czech – Sťastný nový rok
- Danish – Godt nytår
- Dutch – Gelukkig nieuwjaar
- Finnish – Hyvää uutta vuotta
- French – Bonne année
- German – Frohes neues Jahr
- Italian – Felice anno nuovo
- Japanese (pre-midnight) – 良いお年を – Yoi otoshi o
- Japanese (after midnight) – 明けましておめでとうございます – Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu
- Norwegian – Godt nytt år
- Polish – Szczesliwego Nowego Roku
- Portuguese – Feliz Ano Novo
- Russian – S novym godom
- Spanish – Feliz año nuevo
- Swedish – Gott nytt år
- Welsh – Blwyddyn Newydd Dda
Here are some interesting New Year’s Day facts
- The earliest known New Year celebrations were in Mesopotamia and date back to 2000 BC
- The early Romans used March 1 as New Year's Day, while other cultures used the autumn equinox or the winter solstice to mark the New Year
- In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as New Year’s Day
- January is named after Janus, the Roman god with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward – basically the God of beginnings and transitions as he looks to the past and the future
- "Auld Lang Syne" is traditionally sung at midnight on New Year's Eve and was written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788 – the words auld lang syne mean "times gone by"
- The largest New Year’s Eve party in Europe is held in Berlin, at the Brandenburg Gate, and is attended by around one million people
- Until 2006, the Space Shuttle never flew on New Year’s Eve or Day because its computers allegedly couldn’t handle a year rollover
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