In Italy, New Year’s Eve is technically called “Vigilia di Capodanno”, while New Year’s Day is “Capodanno”. Of course, since you celebrate the beginning of a new year at the stroke of midnight on December 31, in every day speech you usually refer to the whole St. Sylvester’s night as “notte di Capodanno” or “Notte di San Silvestro”. Consequently, you refer to New Year’s Day as “primo dell’anno”, that is “the first day of the year”.

 

Capodanno is a compound noun, formed by the combination of the singular masculine noun capo / head, end + the simple preposition di / of (elided before a vowel in d’), and the singular masculine noun anno / year. It is only used in the singular.

 

Examples:

- Le feste di Capodanno / New Year’s celebrations

- A Capodanno / On New Year’s Eve

- Non so ancora cosa farò per Capodanno (also possible: Non so ancora cosa farò a Capodanno) / I still don’t have any plans for New Year’s Eve

- Cosa farai per il primo dell’anno? (also possible: cosa farai il primo dell’anno? – without any preposition) / What will you do on New Year’s Day?

 

Traditionally on New Year’s Eve – but especially on New Year’s Day, for lunch – Italians eat some lentils, that is “lenticchie”, served with cotechino or zampone, which are an Italian pork sausage and a deboned pig trotter stuffed with sausage meat. This dish is believed to bring good luck – money, that is –, as lentils are tiny and round and resemble coins, and pork meat is a symbol of prosperity.

 

lenticchia —> feminine singular

lenticchie —> feminine plural

 

Some ways of eating lentils:

Zuppa di lenticchie / Lentil soup

Lenticchie in umido / Stewed lentils

Lenticchie in scatola / Canned lentils

Lenticchie lesse / Boiled lentils