As you join many other people celebrating the New Year, don’t forget to respect the grammar of the phrase. The ‘N’ and ‘Y’ that begin the two words should normally be in capital letters. In other words, it is ‘Happy New Year’ and not ‘Happy new year’.
The reason is that ‘New Year’ is a proper noun, the type that names a specific person, place or thing. Proper nouns include names of human beings, continents, countries, states, towns, villages and even hamlets. They also include names of (corporate) bodies, companies, religions, sects, associations etc.
While months and days of the week are also proper nouns, names of festivals — like Christmas, Ed-el-Fitri, New Year and New Yam Festival — too are included. A major rule that guides them is that they must begin with capital letters.
So, as you should not start Christmas, Eid al-Fitri, Ojude Oba Festival, Ofala Festival, the Valentine’s Day etc. with small letters, New Year should also start with the upper case –including in your social media posts.