New Year's Day Bank Holiday 2031

The start of the year
1 January has marked the start of the year in England and Wales since the calendar reform of 1752, which moved the country from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar and abandoned 25 March as new year's day. Before that the legal year ran from Lady Day in March, which is why some old documents carry two years for the same winter. Scotland had made the same change far earlier, in 1600, so for a century and a half the two countries began their years on different days.

A bank holiday only since 1974
In Scotland New Year's Day has been a holiday for centuries and was in the original list of Scottish bank holidays. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland it is much newer: it was proclaimed in the autumn of 1973, first kept on 1 January 1974, and has been granted every year since by royal proclamation under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971.

Hogmanay and first-footing
Scotland's Hogmanay celebrations are the largest new year festivities in the UK. The custom of first-footing, where the first person over the threshold after midnight brings coal, shortbread or whisky, is still widely kept, and Auld Lang Syne is sung across the English-speaking world in a version shaped by Robert Burns.

Substitute days
Because it is tied to a date rather than a weekday, New Year's Day lands at the weekend roughly two years in seven. When it does, the bank holiday moves to the following Monday, and in Scotland, where 2nd January is also a holiday, that can push a second substitute day into the same week.

What happens on the day
The London New Year's Day Parade runs through the West End, and hardier souls take part in new year swims such as the Loony Dook in South Queensferry. Almost all shops, banks and public services are closed, and rail timetables run a reduced service and start later in the day.

UK bank holidays 2031