Common Arabic Phrases > Happy New Year in Arabic
Happy New Year in Arabic is سنة سعيدة (sana saʿida) or عام سعيد (ʿam saʿid), both "happy year". At midnight, most people say كل عام وأنتم بخير (kull ʿam wa antum bi-khayr), "may you be well every year", and the answer is wa antum bi-khayr, "and you too".
Make a New Year card below. Pick a wish, add a line for 1 January or for the Hijri new year if you want one, put a name on it and download the PNG. The list holds both kinds of new year: the last wish, ʿam hijri saʿid, is for 1 Muharram.
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Transliteration follows our page of Arabic birthday and holiday wishes: ʿ is the letter ع, ʾ is a glottal stop, and kh is the ch of Scottish loch. Forms said to one person are masculine.
Happy New Year wishes by dialect, and the reply each one expects
The safe wish anywhere is kull ʿam wa antum bi-khayr, answered wa antum bi-khayr. Egypt and the Maghreb have wishes of their own. Most rows come from Saeed Saeed's 11 ways to wish someone a Happy New Year in Arabic in The National (28 December 2025), which prints them in Latin letters only, so the Arabic spelling in those rows is ours. Sana saʿida and ʿam saʿid are from the Lebanese Arabic Institute, and sana jadida saʿida from Ling's list of Arabic holiday wishes.
| Where | Arabic | Transliteration | Meaning | Expected reply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everywhere, formal | كل عام وأنتم بخير | kull ʿam wa antum bi-khayr | may you be well every year | wa antum bi-khayr وأنتم بخير and you too |
| Everywhere | سنة سعيدة | sana saʿida | happy year | the same back |
| Everywhere | عام سعيد | ʿam saʿid | happy year | no fixed reply: shukran, thank you |
| Everywhere | سنة جديدة سعيدة | sana jadida saʿida | happy new year | no fixed reply: shukran |
| Everywhere | أهلا بالسنة الجديدة | ahlan bi-s-sana al-jadida | welcome to the new year | no fixed reply |
| Everywhere | سنة خير وبركات | sanat khayr wa barakat | a year of goodness and blessings | no fixed reply |
| Everywhere, family | سنة مباركة | sana mubaraka | a blessed year | no fixed reply |
| Everywhere | يا رب تكون سنة خير | ya rabb tkun sanat khayr | O Lord, may it be a year of goodness | inshallah إن شاء الله God willing |
| Everywhere | أيامكم سعيدة | ayyamukum saʿida | may your days be happy | no fixed reply |
| Egypt | كل سنة وانت طيب | kull sana w-inta tayyib (to a woman: w-inti tayyiba) | every year, and you are well | w-inta tayyib, and you too |
| Egypt, casual | سنة حلوة | sana helwa | a sweet year | no fixed reply |
| Maghreb | بالصحة والراحة | bi-s-sihha wa-r-raha | with health and comfort | added to another wish, or used as the reply |
The National calls the first row the most common greeting right after midnight. Sana helwa is casual and not religious, and it is the same "sweet year" as the Egyptian birthday song Sana Helwa ya Gamil. Sana mubaraka has a gentle religious tone and is kept for family and close friends. Ayyamukum saʿida is common at Eid too, and also suits birthdays and weddings.
For the Levant, the Lebanese kill ʿam w-inta b-khayr and its reply are in our table of Christmas wishes in Arabic, because Lebanese speakers use the same wish at Christmas and New Year. For the Gulf and Iraq we found no published New Year wish of their own, so use the "everywhere" rows there. Our Arabic dialect map shows which countries each dialect covers.
Sana saʿida or ʿam saʿid: which word for year?
Both are right. Arabic has two everyday words for year, سنة (sana) and عام (ʿam), and the adjective agrees with the noun. Sana is feminine, so "happy" takes the feminine ending: sana saʿida. ʿAm is masculine, so it is ʿam saʿid. The same rule gives sana mubaraka, but ʿam mubarak.
Sana jadida saʿida adds jadida, new, and is the word-for-word "happy new year". It is what a translation box gives, and it is correct. Most wishes in the table above leave out "new". In the fixed wish kull ʿam wa antum bi-khayr the word is always ʿam, while the Egyptian form uses sana: kull sana w-inta tayyib.
The holiday itself is رأس السنة (ras as-sana), "head of the year", which Wiktionary gives as New Year. The card maker's two lines name the two new years: رأس السنة الميلادية (ras as-sana al-miladiyya), the new year of the Gregorian calendar, and رأس السنة الهجرية (ras as-sana al-hijriyya), the Islamic New Year. Miladi means "of the birth of Christ", the same milad as in ʿid milad majid, Merry Christmas.
The Hijri new year: 1 Muharram 1449 is Sunday 6 June 2027
The Islamic New Year is the first day of Muharram. By the Umm al-Qura calendar, 1449 AH begins on Sunday 6 June 2027. Where the month starts on a local sighting of the new moon, the day can be one later. The dates below are the ones our Islamic calendar 2027, with printable PDFs lists, and today's Hijri date and converter shows where the year stands now.
| Hijri year | 1 Muharram (Islamic New Year) | 10 Muharram (Ashura) |
|---|---|---|
| 1448 AH | Tuesday 16 June 2026 | Thursday 25 June 2026 |
| 1449 AH | Sunday 6 June 2027 | Tuesday 15 June 2027 |
| 1450 AH | Thursday 25 May 2028 | Saturday 3 June 2028 |
| 1451 AH | Monday 14 May 2029 | Wednesday 23 May 2029 |
The Hijri new year comes 10 or 11 days earlier each year, because twelve lunar months make 354 or 355 days. Ashura, on 10 Muharram, is a day of mourning for Shia Muslims, as the calendar page notes. The month names, starting with محرم (Muharram), are on our page of Arabic month names and their meanings.
The Hijri wishes below are from Dania Ghraoui's guide to Islamic New Year greetings on the Alifbee blog, which gives no replies. The reply to kull ʿam wa antum bi-khayr is wa antum bi-khayr, as on 1 January.
| Arabic | Transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| عام هجري سعيد | ʿam hijri saʿid | happy Hijri year |
| سنة هجرية سعيدة | sana hijriyya saʿida | happy Hijri year (with the feminine sana) |
| مبارك عليكم العام الهجري الجديد | mubarak ʿalaykum al-ʿam al-hijri al-jadid | blessed be the new Hijri year for you |
| كل عام وأنتم إلى الله أقرب | kull ʿam wa antum ila llahi aqrab | may every year bring you closer to God |
The plain kull ʿam wa antum bi-khayr works for both new years, and for Eid, Christmas and birthdays too.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say Happy New Year in Arabic?
Write sana saʿida (سنة سعيدة) or ʿam saʿid (عام سعيد); both mean happy year. Out loud, the wish most people use at midnight is kull ʿam wa antum bi-khayr (كل عام وأنتم بخير), may you be well every year. In Egypt it is kull sana w-inta tayyib.
How do you reply to Happy New Year in Arabic?
Answer kull ʿam wa antum bi-khayr with wa antum bi-khayr, and you too. In Egypt, kull sana w-inta tayyib is answered w-inta tayyib. Sana saʿida is answered with the same words back, and a wish that has no fixed reply can always be answered shukran, thank you.
Is it sana saʿida or ʿam saʿid?
Both are correct, and both mean happy year. Arabic has two words for year: sana is feminine, so its adjective takes the feminine ending, saʿida, while ʿam is masculine and takes saʿid. Sana jadida saʿida, happy new year, is the word-for-word form, and it is understood everywhere.
How do you wish someone a Happy New Year in Islam?
The Islamic New Year is 1 Muharram. Say kull ʿam wa antum bi-khayr, or ʿam hijri saʿid, happy Hijri year. 1 Muharram 1449 falls on Sunday 6 June 2027 by the Umm al-Qura calendar. Where the month starts on a local sighting of the new moon, it can be a day later.
What do you say with mubarak for the new year?
Sana mubaraka (سنة مباركة), a blessed year, is the New Year wish with mubarak in it, used among family and close friends. For the Hijri new year, mubarak ʿalaykum al-ʿam al-hijri al-jadid means blessed be the new Hijri year for you.