Grace Schultz
Copy Editor

Every year on New Year’s Eve, people gather around to count down as the New Year’s Ball slowly descends in Times Square to mark the beginning of the new year. Each year there is an estimated one million persons in Times Square to watch the dropping of the ball, along with millions more nationwide and billions more around the world. The Ball Drop has been a global tradition since 1904 (timessquarenyc.org).

The Ball is 12 feet in diameter, 11,875 pounds, and starts 400 feet above the ground. According to City Sate Times, this year, Waterford Crystal designed 288 new “Let There Be Love” crystal triangles, 288 triangles with last year’s “Let The Be Courage” design, 1,152 triangles with the “Let There Be Joy” design, and 960 triangles with the original design of “Let There Be Light.” In all, the Ball is able to create more than 16 million colors and billions of patterns.

Another tradition in Times Square is the wishing wall. People stick pieces of paper to the wall with their New Year’s resolutions on them. At midnight, all of these pieces of paper are dropped over everyone like confetti.

In Spain and Latin countries, people eat 12 grapes at midnight as a bell is rung 12 times to symbolize the months in the year. By eating these 12 grapes at midnight, they hope to have good luck and happiness for the next 12 months. In Greece, children set their shoes out to be filled with presents. In China, the women wear red underwear if they hope to be married in the next year and pregnant women wear pink to bring luck to their baby (celebrations.com).

New Year’s Eve started 4,000 years ago and was celebrated in mid-March. Julius Caesar was the first to put Jan. 1 as the beginning of the next year. Not everyone celebrates New Years on Jan. 1, some cultures celebrate it on many different days (holidays.net). New Years is a tradition that people have celebrated for a long time. It has been a big night for billions of people around the world.