Hey, Happy New Year!   That greeting now replaces "How's it going?" for at least a couple of weeks.  It's not Happy New "Year's", though, just Happy New "YEAR".  You see, "New Year's" is short for New Year's EVE.  It's possessive with an apostrophe before the "S".

 

Funny, on social media people are hashtagging "NYE".  I used to think NYE was an acronym for one of the airports in New York.  Turns out, it's for "New Year's Eve".

 

By the way, in case you're afraid to ask, a "hashtag" is the symbol we used to call the "pound" sign or the number sign.  We used to play tic-tac-toe on hashtags. What did we call them then?

 

Another question;  Why do we get so sentimental on New Year's Eve?  I don't know if I've ever seen a New Year's Eve without somebody breaking down in tears. Are we sad or happy? Maybe we're reflecting.   Maybe we're sad it's over and happy it happened?

 

Maybe it was Guy Lombardo's fault.  He and his Royal Canadians used to play a slow, sad version of Auld Lang Syne on TV at midnight.

 

Happy New Year!