С наступающим! - ??

I'm trying to figure out exactly what "С наступающим" means.

The closest my dictionary gets is:
наступать [pfv. наступить]
1. (with на + acc) to step on, tread on.
2. to attack; to go on the offensive
3. (with на + acc) to harrass
4. (of natural phenomena) to advance
5. (of time, a season, etc.) to come.

Number 5 looks most appropriate, and implies that "С наступающим!" would be a toast or salutation "To the Future!"

Or is it more specific, like "To the seasons to come!"? Or "To the year to come!"? Or is it related to the other definitions, as in "To the harrassment of our enemies!"? :)

С наступающим... in its full form will sound like

[Поздравляю вас] c наступающим [новым годом].

It's about some event that will come in the nearest future. (People say that to each other before some holiday. In this particular case - the new year has not yet come but people congratulate you anyway).

So if someone says to you "С наступающим", he (or she) congratulates you upon some forthcoming event (New Year, Christmas, etc - the closest celebration date starting from today).

наступающий is the present active participle of the verb you gave, meaning 'the coming', 'the approaching'. As Ramil said the full phrase is:

[Поздравляю вас] c наступающим [новым годом], meaning 'I congratulate you with the approaching new year'.

New Year is the main holiday in Russia. In English we can say Merry Christmas before the 25th December because Christmas is more of a period. However New Year of course starts on the 1st January, so saying 'Happy New Year' at the end of December is a bit silly. So the Russians say c наступающим

No 2007 has arrived you may use the past active participle of the verb and say с наступИВшим, meaning 'the arrived new year'. Bt С новым годом is normal.

Всех с прошедшими ;)

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Originally Posted by Indra

Всех с прошедшими ;)

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С наступившим!

Обычно говорят "С прошедшим".
Так что это три повода праздновать: "С наступающим!", собственно с праздником и "с прошедшим!"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Propp

Обычно говорят "С прошедшим".

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Или "с прошедшими праздниками", если праздник удался :-) А если нет? То всё хорошее ещё впереди, тогда "с наступившим новым годом"

А вот "с прошедшим новым годом" что-то никто не поздравляет
правда можно "с прошедшим праздником <Новый год>" это имеется ввиду?