Learn Italian: Il Capodanno è il primo gennaio. - New Year's Day is January 1st.

The first day of the month is the one big exception! In Italian, you must use the ordinal number primo (first) for the 1st of the month. For all other days, you go back to regular numbers like il due gennaio (January 2) or il tre gennaio (January 3).

Why is gennaio written with a lowercase letter?

In Italian, the names of the months and the days of the week are not capitalized unless they appear at the very beginning of a sentence.

Why is there an Il before Capodanno?

Italian uses definite articles (like il or la) much more often than English does. It is standard to use them before the names of most holidays, so New Year's Day becomes il Capodanno.

Do I need to add a word for 'of' before the month, like 'the first of January'?

No, you don't need to translate 'of' here. The standard way to state a date is simply the article il, the number, and the month right next to each other, exactly like il primo gennaio.