Hindus never celebrate DA January first as a new year festival Hindus new year..starts in the month of march / April ... they celebrate according to their calender ... on Jan first... they will party..as the world celebrate the change of English calender
we celebrate UGADI as new year,d whole day we r busy with puma,going 2 Mandie,wishing our friends,ND relatives,in English new year we only wish others,watch T V .
Hence it is a holiday all Hindus celebrate the annual holiday and cutting cakes at 12 PM on 31st Dec and welcome the new year with friends. For the most religious Hindus it is nothing but change of calender. They do not do "Tharpanas" as on all auspicious days mostly they do "Tharpanm" in honor of their ancestors.
The advent of New Year is an opportunity for social gathering and social gatherings are called under the 'festivities' which is being celebrated by those who are happy on it. Every religious people celebrate their own new year by special mass worships, new dresses, feasts and offering of sweets, embracing and kissing. It is common all over the world. Hindu is no different, but they respect parents and elders with special emphasis.
There are different dates for new year day for different people in different regions of India, I am a Telugu girl and we welcome new year by doing some pukes on the day. And the new year day is marked according to the Hindu calender. By the way, we call this celebration UGADI (Io-ghaah-dhih)