Happy New Year

Just before Thanksgiving many folks wish you a happy Thanksgiving or Happy Holidays. Immediately after Thanksgiving they will inquire about your Thanksgiving."Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?" they will ask. Then folks will wish you a Merry Christmas. Then immediately after Christmas folks ask, "Did you have a good Christmas?"  And then a few days after that folks start wishing you a Happy New Year or some say New Year's. Then during the first few days of January folks ask if you had a good new year, or new year's.

First of all when written, Happy New Year, since it's a holiday, should be capitalized. It is more proper to wish someone a Happy New Year and not a Happy New Year's. Technically, Happy New Year's is not entirely incorrect since it assumes New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.  The apostrophe indicates possession and "eve" or "day" is attached to new year. It's just that Happy New Year sounds a lot a better than Happy New Year's  even if you understand the syntax.

Then In early January folks will ask you if you had a good new year or new year's.  In this case, new year's is actually more appropriate than new year.  It's a little silly to inquire about the new year  when it's only the first week of January. You have no perspective on the new year.  It the person asks "How was your new year's?" then whether he means to or not, he's inquiring about your New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Either way the person is asking if you enjoyed your New Year's celebration with family and friends and not asking about the new calendar year. .

So  how far into the new year is it appropriate to inquire about the holidays? The rule of thumb is to ask the question the first time you see someone about a week or so into January.  After that it becomes a little unnecessary. By mid-January, "Hello, how are you?" works very well.

Last thing, in some cases "the holidays" were difficult and some people will tell you about it. Since you asked, it's good to listen and be concerned.  If you're not concerned you can at least feign interest since you started the conversation.

In a few weeks folks will wish you  a Happy Easter.  I've never known anyone to wish a Happy Easter's.  I guess it makes as much sense as Happy New Year's since it would suggest a Happy Easter's Day.  But that would just be weird. But whether it's before or after Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's or Easter  more than likely the greeter is making an idle comment.  He really isn't that interested in your response. Back in July of 1992, while going through the worst time of my life, I told my counselor I didn't know how to respond to people who asked me "How are you?"  He said, "Just say 'fine' ".