New Year’s Day falls on 1 January, so it is the first day of the year. It is marked as a public holiday in the UK and it is celebrated enthusiastically by groups of families and friends in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. People eat and drink together and at midnight the parties cheer the loudest. People make toasts in honour of the coming year.

People in the UK and probably every English-speaking country start to sing the song "Auld Lang Syne" at the midnight of the New Year. The lyrics are actually from a poem written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788 and the melody is the tune of a traditional folk song. "For auld lang syne’" basically translates to "for the sake of old times" and most traditions of New Year’s Day are based on letting go of the old and starting new things.

There is a superstition that the first thing that you ate, did, saw, or who first walked over your threshold on the first day of the year will determine how lucky you will be for the rest of the year.

There are fireworks on the Thames and the sounds of town clocks and church bells fill the streets all across the cities, towns, and villages. New Year’s Day has various names as well. New Year’s Day is called Hogmanay in Scotland and it is known as Calennig in Wales.

There is always a great parade and festival held in London on 1 January and people compete with each other to be the best entry in the parade.

It is very surprising, but even the date of New Year’s Day has changed throughout the years. For a short amount of time during the middle ages, New Year’s Day was related to the day that Virgin Mary found out that she was going to give birth to Jesus Christ and it was celebrated on 25 March.

The date of New Year changed gradually with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar around 1582. Although it differs from country to country the date of New Year became 1 January in every country over the following century.