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New Year's Day

New Year’s Day 2025 and 2026

New Year’s Day is 1 January and the first day of the calendar year. The day is marked by a public holiday in the UK.

YearDateDayHolidayCountries
20251 JanWedNew Year's Day National
2 JanThuNew Year Holiday Scotland
20261 JanThuNew Year's Day National
2 JanFriNew Year Holiday Scotland
Please scroll down to end of page for previous years' dates.

*Please refer to this note for Scotland-specific information.

New Year’s Eve in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales is celebrated by loud and happy groups of families and friends. Food and drink are featured and, at the stroke of midnight, the parties cheer loudly and make toasts (take drinks) in honour of the New Year.

At midnight people in almost every English-speaking country, and especially in the UK, sing the song ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to usher in the New Year. The song is a Scottish poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and is sung to the tune of a traditional folk song. ‘For auld lang syne’ is translated loosely to mean ‘for the sake of old times’ and many of the traditions surrounding New Year’s Day relate to taking out the old and starting things anew.

Traditionally, it has been believed that what you ate, did, saw or who walked over your threshold for the first time on the first day of the year would affect your luck for the rest of the year.

Town clocks and church bells sound out across cities, towns and villages and there are fireworks on the Thames. In Scotland, New Year’s Eve is also known as Hogmanay and in Wales, as Calennig.

A New Year’s Day Parade and Festival is held in London on 1 January and many boroughs compete against each other to have the best entry in the parade.

In the UK, New Year’s Day has not always been on this date. For a period during the middle ages, New Year’s Day was on 25 March and related to the occasion when the virgin Mary discovered she would give birth to Jesus Christ.

The Gregorian calendar was eventually adopted from around 1582 and the date of New Year changed gradually, from country to country, over the following century or so to 1 January.

Previous Years

YearDateDayHolidayCountries
20241 JanMonNew Year's Day National
2 JanTueNew Year Holiday Scotland
20231 JanSunNew Year's Day National
2 JanMonNew Year Holiday National
3 JanTueNew Year Holiday Scotland
20221 JanSatNew Year's Day National
2 JanSunNew Year Holiday Scotland
3 JanMonNew Year Holiday National
4 JanTueNew Year Holiday Scotland
20211 JanFriNew Year's Day National
2 JanSatNew Year Holiday Scotland
4 JanMonNew Year Holiday Scotland
20201 JanWedNew Year's Day National
2 JanThuNew Year Holiday Scotland
20191 JanTueNew Year's Day National
2 JanWedNew Year Holiday Scotland
20181 JanMonNew Year's Day National
2 JanTueNew Year Holiday Scotland
20171 JanSunNew Year's Day National
2 JanMonNew Year Holiday National
3 JanTueNew Year Holiday Scotland