New Year's Day is the first day of the year, January 1st.
The celebration of this holiday begins the night before on New Year's Eve, when Americans gather to wish each other a happy and prosperous coming year. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, people cheer and sing "Auld Lang Syne." The song, which means "old long since" or roughly "the good old days," was written by Robert Burns in 1788.