New Year's Eve

New Year’s Eve is December 31, the last day of the year on the Gregorian calendar. It is not one of the annual federal holidays, but it becomes a federal day off whenever the following January 1 falls on a Saturday, because New Year’s Day is then observed on Friday, December 31. New Year’s Eve 2026 is a Thursday. New Year’s Eve 2027 is a Friday and doubles as the observed New Year’s Day holiday.

Most of what Americans associate with the night, from the Times Square ball to “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight, took shape in the twentieth century. One of its oldest American meanings comes from church: the Watch Night services tied to the night before the Emancipation Proclamation took effect.

Is New Year’s Eve a Holiday?

In most years, no. December 31 is a regular workday for federal employees, banks and most businesses, though many offices close early. The exception comes from the federal weekend rule: a holiday that falls on a Saturday is observed on the Friday before. When the next New Year’s Day is a Saturday, that Friday is December 31.

New Year’s Day on a Saturday	Federal holiday observed on
January 1, 2000	Friday, December 31, 1999
January 1, 2005	Friday, December 31, 2004
January 1, 2011	Friday, December 31, 2010
January 1, 2022	Friday, December 31, 2021
January 1, 2028	Friday, December 31, 2027
January 1, 2033	Friday, December 31, 2032

This creates an unusual calendar quirk. The 2027 calendar contains two New Year’s Day federal holidays: Friday, January 1, 2027, and the observed day on Friday, December 31, 2027. The 2028 calendar, in turn, has no New Year’s Day holiday dated inside 2028 at all. Payroll, leave and business-day counts need to account for that shift.

Not everyone follows the federal rule. The New York Stock Exchange notes that because January 1, 2028, falls on a Saturday, no New Year’s Day holiday will be observed, so stocks will trade on Friday, December 31, 2027. In an ordinary year, December 31 is a full trading day; the exchange lists no early close for Thursday, December 31, 2026.

Times Square Ball Drop History

Crowds began gathering in Times Square on New Year’s Eve in 1904, and New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs drew them with fireworks. After city officials banned the explosives a few years later, Ochs commissioned a lighted ball from Jacob Starr of Strauss Signs, modeled on the time balls that harbors used to signal the time to ships.

The first ball came down from the flagpole of One Times Square on December 31, 1907, to welcome 1908. It was a 700-pound iron structure fitted with 25-watt light bulbs, lowered by hand starting one minute before midnight. Waiters in nearby restaurants and hotels wore battery-powered top hats that lit up with “1908.” At midnight, an electrician threw a switch that turned off the ball and lit the numbers of the new year at the same moment.

The tradition has had a few breaks and many redesigns:

• World War II. The drop was canceled for two years during the war. People still came to Times Square and marked midnight with a minute of silence.
• After the war. A lighter aluminum frame replaced the iron ball.
• The Big Apple. An apple design was used during Ed Koch’s years as mayor.
• 1995. The ball was updated with rhinestones, strobe lights and computer controls.
• 1999 onward. Triangular crystal panels became the ball’s signature. By 2021 the ball was a collaboration between Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting, with 32,256 LEDs that could display millions of colors.
• 2020. For the first time since 1904, crowds were barred from Times Square because of the pandemic. The following year, in-person attendance was capped at 15,000, compared with about 60,000 before the pandemic.
• 2025-2026. The Constellation Ball, the ninth ball since 1907, made its debut for the 2026 countdown. It is 12.5 feet across, weighs just over 12,000 pounds and carries 5,280 circular Waterford crystals in three sizes.

Because the drop happens at midnight Eastern Time, most of the country watches it before its own midnight: it is 9 p.m. in California and 7 p.m. in Hawaii when the ball reaches the bottom. The time zones guide explains why. Network television has carried the countdown for decades, including the Dick Clark broadcasts that began in the early 1970s.

Watch Night and Freedom’s Eve

Watch Night services, held in churches on December 31 and running past midnight, predate the Civil War; Methodists adopted the practice from the Moravians in the eighteenth century. In Black churches, the service carries a specific history.

On the night of December 31, 1862, Black Americans gathered to pray and sing as they waited for the Emancipation Proclamation to take effect on January 1, 1863. Frederick Douglass, waiting in Boston, described the mood: “We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky, which should rend the fetters of four millions of slaves.” The proclamation applied to areas under Confederate control, and freedom there followed the arrival of US forces, but the night became known as Freedom’s Eve.

Black church communities still hold Watch Night services, often followed by a New Year’s Day meal that includes Hoppin’ John.

How Americans Celebrate New Year’s Eve

The core customs are simple and widely shared:

• The countdown. Parties, public gatherings and broadcasts build to midnight, usually with fireworks, noisemakers, champagne and a kiss at the stroke of twelve.
• “Auld Lang Syne.” The Scots title roughly means “old long since” or “for old time’s sake.” The song traces to an older ballad that Robert Burns reworked, and the Library of Congress dates the first publication of his version to 1796. Bandleader Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played it on a New Year’s Eve broadcast in 1929, which helped make it the standard American song for midnight.
• Resolutions. Many people use the night to set goals for the coming year.
• Religious services. Besides Watch Night, many churches hold prayer services as the year turns.

New Year’s Eve on the Calendar

December 31 is day 365 of a common year and day 366 of a leap year, so in leap years like 2028 the year runs one day longer before the countdown. The day of the year calculator shows the number for any date. New Year’s Eve also always falls on the same weekday as Christmas Eve a week earlier, and on the day before New Year’s Day, so a Friday New Year’s Eve means a Saturday January 1 and a federal day off. A Thursday New Year’s Eve, as in 2026, means New Year’s Day falls on a Friday, giving many workers a three-day weekend from January 1 through January 3, 2027.

Some New Year’s Eves are remembered for what happened at midnight. The rollover from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000, came after years of preparation for the Y2K computer date problem, and only minor glitches were reported. December 31, 1999, was also a federal day off, because January 1, 2000, was a Saturday. You can see how the weekdays lined up on the 1999 calendar.

For the week before, see Christmas Eve, which follows the same weekday pattern.