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The meaning of the expression “Happy New Year” is known to almost everyone. In the last days of December, you hear the New Year’s greeting very often. We tell you what theories there are about its origin and how you can respond appropriately.
“Guten Rutsch”: meaning and origin
With the expression “Guten Rutsch”, people from German-speaking countries wish themselves a good start to the new year. There are various theories about its origin.
- One assumption is that the expression comes from Yiddish. According to this, the New Year’s greeting comes from the greeting formula “a git Rosh”, which translates as “a good beginning”.
- There are, however, some doubts about this theory. For example, it could not be proven that Jews actually used the expression “a git Rosh”. Furthermore, the expression “Rosh” comes from Sephardic. In Germany, however, Western Yiddish was more common.
- An alternative explanation is that the word “Rutsch” could be derived from “journey”. For example, the Brothers Grimm could be shown to have used the word “rutschen” synonymously with the word “reisen”.
- So the New Year greeting could come from the fact that people in the past wished each other a ‘”good journey into the New Year”.
This is what you can say in response to the New Year’s greeting
If someone wishes you a “Happy New Year” in person or by message, you can respond in different ways.
- The easiest is probably a “Thank you. Likewise!” or a “Thank you, I wish you the same”.
- You can also return a New Year’s wish to your counterpart, for example by saying “I wish you a Happy New Year too!”.
- Depending on how well you know your counterpart, you can give even more personal responses, for example wishing good health or success.
