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What are you doing on New Year’s Eve? Eating 12 grapes, counting down with a sparkly disco ball, yelling “Rabbit, rabbit!” or something else entirely? Every culture has a unique tradition to welcome in the new year, from what they do to what they say.

For example, in Brazilian Portuguese, the celebration is known as “Réveillon” (yes, that’s French!). Brazillians usually wear all white clothing and some even head to the beach at midnight, where they might throw flowers into the ocean or skip the first seven waves with their right foot for good luck. In Czech, each day on the calendar corresponds to a saint’s name, so people celebrate both their birthday and their name day. December 31st is the feast of Saint Silvestr—so in Czech-speaking countries, you attend a "Silvestr Party" on New Year's Eve! In German, most people wish each other a “good slide” into the new year on the days leading up to January 1 by saying, “Guten Rutsch (ins neue Jahr).” And that’s just the beginning!

If you want to surprise your friends and family at midnight with a fancy, multilingual toast, we’ve asked everyone from our teaching experts to our multilingual coworkers how to say “Happy New Year,” in 16 different languages!

How to say “Happy New Year” across the globe

Language New Year’s Toast Translation
Arabic !عام سعيد Happy New Year!
Chinese 新年快乐 (formal) or 新年好 (informal) Happy New Year!
Czech Šťastný nový rok Happy New Year!
French Bonne Année Happy New Year!
Gaelic Bliadhna Mhath Ùr A good New Year.
German Frohes neues Jahr Happy New Year.
Hindi नव वर्ष की शुभकामनाएँ Have a blessed new year.
Italian Buon anno! Happy New Year!
Japanese 明けましておめでとう! Happy New Year!
Korean 새해 복 많이 받으세요 May you have good fortune in the new year.
Portuguese Feliz Ano Novo! Happy New Year!
Romanian Un An Nou fericit! A happy new year!
Russian С Новым Годом! С новым счастьем! Congratulations on the New Year! Congratulations on new happiness!
Spanish ¡Feliz Año Nuevo! Happy New Year!
Swahili Heri njema ya mwaka mpyaa Happy New Year!
Swedish Gott Nytt År! Happy New Year!

Of course, there are thousands more New Year greetings and traditions across the globe, not to mention the regional differences and unique family traditions! Share with us on social @Duolingo and let us know how you plan to ring in 2022!