New Year’s Eve 2026 falls on Thursday, December 31, 2026, and New Year’s Day is Friday, January 1, 2027. The counter below shows how many days until New Year’s Eve in your own time zone. Midnight arrives at a different moment in each time zone, so the United States sees in the new year over a five-hour span.
New Year's Eve 2026
That was December 31, 2026.
| New Year’s Eve | Thursday, December 31, 2026 |
|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | Friday, January 1, 2027 |
| Federal holiday? | New Year’s Day yes; New Year’s Eve no |
| Banks on Dec 31 | Open, normal Thursday hours |
| Stock market Dec 31 | NYSE and Nasdaq open, full session |
| Stock market Jan 1 | Closed |
| Times Square ball drop | 11:59 p.m. Eastern, December 31 |
When does New Year’s Eve start and end?
New Year’s Eve is the whole of Thursday, December 31, 2026, running midnight to midnight in local time. It ends exactly when New Year’s Day begins. There is no official start to the celebration itself, which is why the question has no single answer beyond the calendar day.
In practice the evening is what people mean. Events, broadcasts and restaurant sittings generally run from the early evening to shortly after midnight, and individual venues publish their own hours.
What time is midnight in each US time zone?
Midnight is local, so the new year sweeps westward across the country. Eastern Time reaches it first, followed an hour later by Central, then Mountain, then Pacific. By the time Pacific Time reaches midnight it is already 3:00 a.m. on January 1 in New York.
Alaska Time follows an hour after Pacific, and Hawaii-Aleutian Time two hours after that. In full, the United States takes six hours to cross into 2027, from the first midnight in the Eastern zone to the last in Hawaii.
What is open on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day?
December 31 is a normal working Thursday. Federal offices and banks are open, the Postal Service delivers, and the stock exchanges run a full session to 4:00 p.m. Eastern. There is no early close on New Year’s Eve, which surprises people who assume it works like Christmas Eve.
January 1 is a federal holiday. Because it falls on a Friday in 2027, it is observed on the day itself, with no substitute weekday. Federal offices, banks and the Postal Service close, and the exchanges do not trade. The Friday placement produces a three-day weekend.
What time is the Times Square ball drop?
The ball in Times Square begins its descent at 11:59 p.m. Eastern and reaches the bottom exactly as the clock reaches midnight, a sixty-second drop. The tradition dates to the 1907 to 1908 New Year, and the event has been held every year since with two wartime exceptions in 1942 and 1943, when lighting restrictions were in force.
Where does the new year arrive first and last?
The first inhabited places to reach midnight are in Kiribati, where the Line Islands run on UTC+14, the furthest-forward time zone in use anywhere. Samoa and parts of Tonga follow at UTC+13, New Zealand’s Chatham Islands at UTC+13:45, and Auckland at UTC+13. Sydney reaches midnight at UTC+11 during its summer.
At the other end, Baker Island and Howland Island sit at UTC-12 but are uninhabited, so in practice American Samoa at UTC-11 is the last populated place to see in the new year. The full span from the first midnight to the last is twenty-six hours, which means 2027 has already been under way for a full day somewhere on Earth by the time it arrives in the Pacific islands.
When is New Year’s Day 2027 observed?
New Year’s Day is a fixed-date federal holiday, always January 1. As with the other fixed-date holidays, the observed day moves when the date lands on a weekend: to the preceding Friday when January 1 is a Saturday, and to the following Monday when it is a Sunday.
2027 needs no adjustment, since January 1 is a Friday. The next shift comes in 2028, when January 1 falls on a Saturday and the federal holiday is observed on Friday, December 31, 2027, pulling the day off into the previous calendar year. That quirk catches out payroll and leave calendars more often than any other holiday rule.
Related dates
- When do the clocks change in 2026?
- When is Halloween 2026?
- When does daylight saving time end in 2026?
Frequently asked questions
How many days until New Year’s Eve 2026?
New Year’s Eve 2026 is Thursday, December 31, 2026. The countdown at the top of this page shows the days remaining in your own time zone.
What day of the week is New Year’s Day 2027?
Friday, January 1, 2027. Because it falls on a weekday, the federal holiday is observed on the day itself and creates a three-day weekend.
Is the stock market open on New Year’s Eve?
Yes. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq trade a full session on December 31, closing at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. There is no early close. The market is closed on January 1.
What time is the ball drop in Times Square?
The ball begins its descent at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on December 31 and reaches the bottom at midnight, a sixty-second drop.
Is New Year’s Eve a federal holiday?
No. December 31 is a normal working day. New Year’s Day, January 1, is the federal holiday.