[Grammar] happy New Year or happy new year?

[tbentsen77]

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all users of this forum!

Or is it a happy New Year??

In some dictonaries, I found that the expression: "Happy New Year" is written with initial capital, whereas "I wiah you a happy new year" is written with lower case initial.

In "Merry Christmas!" and "We wish you a merry Christmas!" - both "Christmases" are written in capital.

What's the difference?

In any case - Merry Christmas and happy New Year / new year to all! )

 

[Rover_KE]

If you are sending somebody a greeting, capitalise thus:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Within a narrative text, we write 'I had a merry Christmas, all right - I was drunk all the time' (Christmas is always capitalised).

If New Year refers to the festival, it is capitalised -

'We had a great New Year party';

but not if it refers to a simple calendar date -

'I intend to drink less in the new year'.

Rover

 

[tbentsen77]

Thank you, Rover!

It makes sense! Have I undertood you correctly when assuming that:


"They wished each other a happy new year" - is the most correct way of using capital/lowercase? Meaning, of course, that they wished each other all the best for the entire year to come, not just the event of the turn of the year. Thus "a Happy New Year" would actually be wrong in this case?

Whereas "He spend New Year at his friends house" implies that he spend only the days around the turn of the year, not the enitre new year.

In addition to the above, am I being correct writing "We wish you a merry Christmas" with a lowercase "m" in merry? Some people lik to use a capital "M" but which is the most correct?

Anyone feel free to join in!

 

[Rover_KE]

Anyone feel free to join in!

Yes, please.

Rover