American New Year’s Day Celebrations

New York is the top destination for many Americans celebrating the new year. In the past 100 years the “ball dropping” on top of One Times Square in New York City, broadcast to all of America (and rebroadcast in many other countries), is a major component of the New Year celebration. The 1,070-pound, 6-foot-diameter Waterford crystal ball located high above Times Square is lowered, starting at 11:59 p.m. and reaching the bottom of its tower 60 seconds later, at the stroke of midnight (12:00 a.m.). This is repeated for all four time zones in the continental US.

New Year’s Eve is a major event in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the Las Vegas Strip is shut down as several hundred thousand people party. New Year’s Eve is traditionally the busiest day of the year at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California, where the parks stay open late and the usual nightly fireworks are supplemented by an additional New-Year’s-Eve-specific show at midnight. In New Orleans, Louisiana, another of the most popular New Year celebration venues in North America, similar crowds of hundreds of thousands gather in the French Quarter, particularly on Bourbon and Canal Street, to celebrate the New Year.

Many cities also celebrate First Night, a non-alcohol family-friendly New Year’s Celebration, generally featuring performing artists, community events, parades, and fireworks displays. First Night began in Boston in 1976 and is now found in over 60 cities nationwide. A similar celebration is Providence, Rhode Island’s Bright Night Providence,and an artist run arts celebration that started when Providence’s First Night went bankrupt in 2003.

The song “Auld Lang Syne” has become a popular song to sing at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Fireworks and other forms of noise making is a big part of the celebration, too. In several areas of the U.S., particularly major urban areas, New Year celebrations are punctuated by random celebratory gunfire which could potentially cause injuries and deaths. Police departments in many cities, aided by gun safety organizations, have attempted to crack down on this practice through technology and stiffer penalties.

New Year’s Day traditions include making New Year’s resolutions, watching the Tournament of Roses Parade and later the Rose Bowl football game, and reviewing the past year, including topics such as politics, natural disasters, music and the arts, as well as noting significant individuals who died.v