Uploaded December 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Start the new year the right way by learning what people say and do around this time of year. I will teach you everything you need to know about New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! We will go over some vocabulary and expressions used during this special season, as well as explore some customs and traditions of English-speaking countries. After watching, you will be able to express your New Year's wishes to your friends and family in speaking and writing, and you'll even be able to send them a greeting card! If your New Year's resolution is to improve your English, you can start right here and now!
TAKE THE QUIZ: engvid.com/happy-new-year-expressions-customs-vocabulary
TRANSCRIPT
Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid, and today we're doing a special lesson on celebrating the New Year. So, let's get rid of these colourful decorations and get started. Okay, so first of all, I know there are all kinds of New Years. Right? There are religious New Years, there are national New Years, but in today's lesson we're going to focus on the New Year that starts on January 1st, which is considered the calendar New Year or the Western New Year, or the Gregorian calendar New Year. Okay?
So, let's first understand the terms. All right? So, January 1st is considered New Year's Day. December 31st, the day before that and the year before that is considered New Year's Eve. Now, when we say "eve" it means the day before, the evening before, the day before. For example, if Christmas is on December 25th, Christmas Eve is December 24th. So when we have the word "eve", it's always the day before. Okay? All right.
So, what I'm going to explain today is how we celebrate the New Year in many English-speaking countries, some of the customs and traditions that we follow, and also some of the things that we say. How do we wish people? How do you greet people? Right? And also some of the things... Special things that you do. All right.
So, first let's talk about some of the things that people normally do on December 31st, which is the day when we actually start celebrating and then we go into the New Year. Okay? So, what do we do? We get all dressed up. It's usually a very fun time. It's a very fun time, it's a very special time. And it's also a very meaningful time because the New Year represents a fresh start, a new page, a new chapter in your life. Okay? A chance to do new things, to have new plans, and so on. So it's considered a very special time, people are usually very excited because we all like to have another chance at getting things right in our life, or improving ourselves or improving our life. And that's what New Year's represents to lots of people. So, this is what they do. Usually this is what we do. We dress up in our fancy clothes, many people.
It's very, very popular to go to parties. Now, these parties can be of all kinds. You could have a small party at home with just your family and friends, you could have a medium-sized party where you go to a restaurant or a club and they are having a special kind of a celebration for the New Year, and maybe they have a lot of TVs on where they're watching New Year's celebrations in different parts of the world. Or you go... Could go to a large party which is outdoors, maybe it's in a City Hall. Lots of people from different parts of the city come there, they congregate, and they have concerts, music, and all kinds of fun things happening.
Or the most famous party, one of the most famous parties and probably one of the largest parties in the whole world that takes place on New Year happens in New York City in Times Square. You might have watched it on television. There, that party, if we can call it that, has a million visitors and lots of other special traditions. There's a very famous thing that happens at midnight, there's a huge crystal ball, it weighs about 5,000 kilos and it's huge, and it's made of crystal, and in the last 10 seconds of the... Of New Year's Eve and going into New Year's Day, the crystal ball begins to drop and what we have is a countdown to the New Year. So everybody goes: "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1", and then: "Happy New Year!" and all the craziness starts. Okay? So that's the biggest party that's probably happening anywhere in the world, which is in Times Square in New York. So, parties, very popular. It doesn't mean that if you don't have a party it's not the New Year. You can have a party by yourself and say: "You know what? I'm happy being by myself", but I'm just telling you what lots of people like to do.
So usually we get together with our family and friends. We... As I said, when we go out we attend concerts, we listen to music, people are dancing and people are having fun, they're joking, they're laughing, they're being silly.
Start the new year the right way by learning what people say and do around this time of year. I will teach you everything you need to know about New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! We will go over some vocabulary and expressions used during this special season, as well as explore some customs and traditions of English-speaking countries. After watching, you will be able to express your New Year's wishes to your friends and family in speaking and writing, and you'll even be able to send them a greeting card! If your New Year's resolution is to improve your English, you can start right here and now!
TAKE THE QUIZ: engvid.com/happy-new-year-expressions-customs-vocabulary
TRANSCRIPT
Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid, and today we're doing a special lesson on celebrating the New Year. So, let's get rid of these colourful decorations and get started. Okay, so first of all, I know there are all kinds of New Years. Right? There are religious New Years, there are national New Years, but in today's lesson we're going to focus on the New Year that starts on January 1st, which is considered the calendar New Year or the Western New Year, or the Gregorian calendar New Year. Okay?
So, let's first understand the terms. All right? So, January 1st is considered New Year's Day. December 31st, the day before that and the year before that is considered New Year's Eve. Now, when we say "eve" it means the day before, the evening before, the day before. For example, if Christmas is on December 25th, Christmas Eve is December 24th. So when we have the word "eve", it's always the day before. Okay? All right.
So, what I'm going to explain today is how we celebrate the New Year in many English-speaking countries, some of the customs and traditions that we follow, and also some of the things that we say. How do we wish people? How do you greet people? Right? And also some of the things... Special things that you do. All right.
So, first let's talk about some of the things that people normally do on December 31st, which is the day when we actually start celebrating and then we go into the New Year. Okay? So, what do we do? We get all dressed up. It's usually a very fun time. It's a very fun time, it's a very special time. And it's also a very meaningful time because the New Year represents a fresh start, a new page, a new chapter in your life. Okay? A chance to do new things, to have new plans, and so on. So it's considered a very special time, people are usually very excited because we all like to have another chance at getting things right in our life, or improving ourselves or improving our life. And that's what New Year's represents to lots of people. So, this is what they do. Usually this is what we do. We dress up in our fancy clothes, many people.
It's very, very popular to go to parties. Now, these parties can be of all kinds. You could have a small party at home with just your family and friends, you could have a medium-sized party where you go to a restaurant or a club and they are having a special kind of a celebration for the New Year, and maybe they have a lot of TVs on where they're watching New Year's celebrations in different parts of the world. Or you go... Could go to a large party which is outdoors, maybe it's in a City Hall. Lots of people from different parts of the city come there, they congregate, and they have concerts, music, and all kinds of fun things happening.
Or the most famous party, one of the most famous parties and probably one of the largest parties in the whole world that takes place on New Year happens in New York City in Times Square. You might have watched it on television. There, that party, if we can call it that, has a million visitors and lots of other special traditions. There's a very famous thing that happens at midnight, there's a huge crystal ball, it weighs about 5,000 kilos and it's huge, and it's made of crystal, and in the last 10 seconds of the... Of New Year's Eve and going into New Year's Day, the crystal ball begins to drop and what we have is a countdown to the New Year. So everybody goes: "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1", and then: "Happy New Year!" and all the craziness starts. Okay? So that's the biggest party that's probably happening anywhere in the world, which is in Times Square in New York. So, parties, very popular. It doesn't mean that if you don't have a party it's not the New Year. You can have a party by yourself and say: "You know what? I'm happy being by myself", but I'm just telling you what lots of people like to do.
So usually we get together with our family and friends. We... As I said, when we go out we attend concerts, we listen to music, people are dancing and people are having fun, they're joking, they're laughing, they're being silly.
