Let’s Ring in the New Year!

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Happy New Year, Friends!

By now you have either put away your holiday decorations or are procrastinating, waiting for January 6th, the 12th day of Christmas.

But before you pack away that last box of ornaments, here a few fun facts how New Year’s traditions came about.

Since New Years’ Eve is celebrated around the world, there are a lot of interesting New Years’ facts. From the giant party in New York City to smaller celebrations around the world. There are many traditions that have become popular with bringing in the New Year.

Baby New Year

The tradition of Baby New Year has been around since ancient Greece. During New Years’ celebrations for Dionysus, a baby was paraded through the streets as a symbol of the rebirth of the year. In more recent times the New Years Baby has been paired with Father Time as a companion.

Times Square Celebrations

The Times Square celebration started in 1904, but the first Ball Drop happened in 1907 to celebrate the New York Times building.  Back then, they used a simple iron and wood ball with just 100 light bulbs. Today, we marvel at the high-tech crystal ball that features an incredible 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles. The modern ball illuminates the sky with 32,256 LED lights, creating billions of patterns and colors that mesmerize everyone watching. Over 200,000 people showed up for the opening of the building. Now the crowd grows to over 1 million people each year.

The ball has dropped each year since 1907. With exceptions made during WWII due to lighting restrictions in 1942 and 1943. During those years the ball did not light up at all.

More Than Just a Ball Drop

Even though most people are familiar with the famous ball drop in Times Square. Many cities have their own unique way to usher in the New Year. There is the Pickle drop in Mt. Olive, North Carolina, a boot drop in Prescott, Arizona. And a giant Moon Pie in Mobile, Alabama. These are only a few of the weird things that different places drop-in celebration of New Years’.

New Years Kiss

This is a tradition that has been around since Roman times too. It dates back to the festivities of Saturnalia. Which celebrated the god Saturn, god of times. Many of the traditions from this festival were later incorporated into Christian celebrations of Christmas and New Years’.

New Years Food

There are many different foods that are considered to be good luck to eat on New Years’. One of the most popular is Black Eyed Peas, Leafy Greens, and Cornbread.  Followed by pork dishes and grapes and round foods. In Spain, they celebrate by eating 12 grapes right at midnight.

Drink Up

Over 360 million glasses of sparkling wine/champagne are consumed on New Year’s Eve. Followed by beer and mixed drinks.

New Years Resolutions

Over 41% of people make some sort of New Year’s resolutions. Most of them have to do with eating healthy and exercising. Others involve saving money and lowering stress.  Most people give up by February. But there are a few people each year that actually manage to hold out and complete their resolutions.

New Years Song

“Aude Lang Syne” is the traditional song of New Years’. It was written in 1788 by the poet Robert Burns. The name means roughly “times long past” and the poem is about old friends meeting again.

Most of us are familiar with Canadian-born American dance-band leader, Guy Lombardo whose New Year’s Eve radio and television broadcasts with his Royal Canadians became an American tradition for 48 years. https://youtu.be/59JMuE-djvY

 

New Year’s Eve is one of the biggest holidays of the year and most people around the world celebrate it. From food to bring luck in the New Year to odd traditions that people have. Fr

From my family to yours, I wish you new beginnings, simple pleasures, and beautiful moments. Happy New Year!

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Giveaway!

What are your favorite parts of celebrating New Year’s Eve?  Do you make any resolutions? Let me know in the comments.

One random winner will receive her/his choice of one of my 2024 holiday ebooks.  

A Sleigh Ride For Claire  – CLICK HERE

Ivy – Christmas Quilt Brides – CLICK HERE

Holly In His Heart – CLICK HERE

 

 

Author at JMV Creative Enterprise | jrobertsauthor@yahoo.com | Website |  + posts

Born and raised in western Massachusetts, Jo-Ann Roberts was fascinated by America’s Old West and always felt she was destined to travel on a wagon train following the Oregon Trail. With her love of history and reading, she began reading historical romance during high school and college. Victoria Holt, Jude Deveraux, and Roseanne Bittner were among her favorites. Influenced by her father, she fell in love with John Wayne, James Garner, and her all-time favorite, James Stewart and grew up watching Wagon Train, Bonanza and Rawhide.
A firm believer in HEA with a healthy dose of realism, Jo-Ann strives to give her readers a sweet historical romance while imparting carefully researched historical facts, personalities, and experiences relative to the time period. Her romances take her readers back to a simpler time to escape the stress of modern life by living in a small town where families and friends help one another find love and happiness.
When she isn’t creating believable plots and relatable heroes and heroines, Jo-Ann enjoys spending time with her husband, children and grandson. She also enjoys baking, quilting and eating way too much chocolate.
After 38 years in public education in Connecticut and Maryland, she’s now calls North Carolina home.

51 thoughts on “Let’s Ring in the New Year!”

  1. I prefer staying home and watching Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve with Ryan Seacrest.

    Thanks for sharing the facts.

  2. New Year’s eve has traditionally been when we celebrate Christmas with my in- laws. Since they have passed, we still find ourselves celebrating Christmas with our children/grandchildren on New Year’s eve so that they can have Christmas with their own families.
    It’s always been a blessing to share the holidays with family.

  3. We spend the evening at our son’s home, eating ?, and playing games. Then home and off to bed by 10:00 ?. No specific resolutions.

    • Welcome, Molly. What a fun way to ring in the new year. After reading the comments, I found that most of the readers tend to agree with you about staying home! Happy New Year!

  4. Thank you for sharing these traditions with us.

    I’m at home and normally in bed before midnight. I have goals that I set for the new year.

  5. Every year, I look forward to the traditional New Year’s Day dinner we eat then. I used to make New Year’s resolutions, but I haven’t in years. I just try to live every day in God’s will — try being the operative word.

    • Welcome, Janice! I’ve enjoyed reading the traditions everyone has posted. I used to make resolutions also, but find if I call them “goals” I have a better chance of achieving them. Happy New Year!

    • Welcome, Debra. I agree with you. With a goal, I find I have more of a chance of achieving it. After reading the comments, I found that most of the readers tend to agree with you about staying home! Happy New Year!

  8. Good morning! Thanks Jo-Ann for the article on New Year’s. I tend to call me “list” this year a goal also. Mostly it is cleaning out closets, adding some small modeling, reorganizing, and fixing a few things in the house. I’ve marked off one thus far! Reorganizing the pantry! Yay! And yes, I took down all the Christmas lights outside yesterday. Just a few decorations inside to put up.

    Oh! Another thing we say is,”What you do on New Year’s Day, will be what you do all year.” Have you heard that one?

    May everyone have a blessed New Year!

    • Welcome, Tracy. I tend to call them goals instead of resolutions also. Makes it more achievable. I’ve never heard that saying about New Year’s Day, but I’ll have to remember it next year and plan for something grand. Happy New Year!

  9. Over the years I have seen the new year dawn in countries around the world. Seeing fireworks shot off at midnight New Years Eve, as we landed at a military base in Asia, was one of the most memorable. Now I’m in bed when the year changes and welcome it in the morning. Black-eyed peas with ham hocks and cornbread have been a tradition in my family for several generations.

    • Welcome, Carol. How lucky you’ve been to witness the incoming year from different countries. Seeing fireworks as your plane landed sounds exciting. Many of our friends here in North Carolina enjoy the black-eyed peas cornbread, collards, and ham. Happy New Year!

  10. New Year’s Eve for me has been very quite the last number of years. We are of Irish and Scottish roots and we have a lot of different rituals for this time. One my grandmother always did was make sure the bills were paid, the house clean and food on the table. We had to have a first footer too, a dark haired person would be the first one to enter your house for good luck. He or she would bring something to represent wealth for the house and coal to make sure the house was always heated. When nana died this died with her. I try to do the others though. Happy New Year.

    • Welcome, Kathleen. I’ve heard about cleaning the house and paying the bills, but the one about a dark-haired person stepping over the threshold is a new one for me. Sadly, many old traditions die off when our grandparents pass. Happy New Year!

  11. Happy New Year to all. My husband and I are in our 80’s and no longer celebrate New Years. IF we are awake at midnight we will exchange a kiss. No staying up until midnight for us! No resolutions as they are basically pointless as we do not follow them.

  12. We just stay home and watch TV or something. We don’t really celebrate the New Year anymore but we are getting older and things just aren’t the same. We are just glad we made it another year.

  13. We don’t celebrate the new year. We used to have watchnight services at church, but as our church has a lot of older people we don’t have the special services any longer. Happy New Year!

  14. Wishing you a happy and safe and healthy New Year also. May it be prosperous and full of love and laughter with family and friends.
    We dont really do much for New Years Eve any more. My husband and I are usually in bed by 10 pm. This year we made it to 11 pm. LOL
    If I am chosen I would love to read: Ivy – Christmas Quilt Brides

    • Welcome, Lori. Thanks so much for the kind holiday greeting. After reading the comments, I found that most of the readers tend to agree with you about staying home! Happy New Year!

  17. Good morning and Thank you for all this awesome info. I dont make New Years resolutions. I do choose a word for the New year . We do eat Black eyed peas and I always make 2 Rum cakes, we share one with our daughter and her little family or our son and his little family when they come for New Years. I love having chips and dips on New Years day also. May you have a Blessed New Year. ( I am not entering this ebook giveaway as I am not tech savvy at all and dont read ebooks, but Thank you)

    • Welcome, Alicia. I’m pleased you enjoyed the information. I like your idea of choosing a word for the new year. May I borrow that idea? After reading the comments, I found that many readers tend to agree with you about staying home with family and friends! Happy New Year!

    • Welcome, Colleen. After reading the comments, I found that most of the readers tend to agree with you about staying home and spending time with family! Happy New Year! Keep Reading !!

  19. New Year’s Eve is quiet around our house. With all the kids grown, my husband and I spend a quiet evening watching TV. We do watch the ball drop and then go to sleep.

    • Welcome, Elaine. Your evening plans for New Year’s Eve sound very similar to ours. This year, I made it to midnight, but my husband fell asleep before the ball dropped. Happy New Year!

  20. I plan to keep doing this resolution (which I have done for two years now: review every book I finsh on Amazon and Bookbub regardless of whether I borrowed the borrowed the book or not. They are usually only 2-4 lines long and don’t take to do.

  21. I don’t make resolutions. I do much better when I don’t! I actually accomplish more of things I want to do if I don’t make the resolution for some reason.

  22. This year the American bishops decided January 1st, usually a holy day of obligation [Mary the Mother of God], wasn’t an obligation to attend Mass. Being named after her, this part of New Year’s Day is one of my favorite parts of the holiday (a few people were at Mass this morning).

    Happy 2025 and thanks for running the giveway!

  23. Thank you for an interesting post. It is always interesting to learn the history of things with which we are familiar.
    We have never been party people and have only gone out one New Year’s Eve to a big party. We have spent a few New Year’s evenings with neighbors and friends, all of us bringing along our children. Those get togethers usually ended well before midnight. My husband goes to bed early, so I usually watch the ball drop in Times Square by myself unless our adult children are home. It is enjoyable watching the midnight celebrations from around the world which some stations broadcast.
    For resolutions, it is usually the regular ones about being more organized, work on diet and exercise, and trying to be a better person. Thank you for the giveaway.
    I hope you have a Wonderful 2025.

    • Welcome, Patricia! We used to have house parties similar to this but as we’ve gotten older we just have dinner at home. After reading the comments, I found that most readers tend to agree with you about staying home and spending time with family! Happy New Year!

  25. Some interesting information you shared. Thanks.
    I don’t set a resolution because I try to be the best me I can every day of every year. I have enough of a hectic schedule sometimes to add the pressure of a resolution would just be too much much so I strive for the “each day at a time” thing.

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