When people say "They had to move the interview to the new year.", does that mean the interview will take place in January next year (or even January 1st), or just anytime next year?
Meaning in Context – What ‘The New Year’ Means in This Sentence
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Best Answer
Used in this kind of context, "new year" idiomatically means a short time into the next calendar year. It isn't a specific date and it doesn't have to be January, but it tends to only be used this way for short postponements that move something from late in one year to early in the next. For example, if something was scheduled for December 2021 and it was moved to February 2022, it might be said that it has been "postponed until the new year".
Saying that something is now taking place "next year" could sound like it has been postponed a whole 12 months, so this is a way of countering that. It also seems to be a way of accounting for the end-of-year holidays which may add to the postponement of something. So whereas you might normally put something off until "next week" or "next month", the holidays at the end of December may push something postponed into the following calendar year.