For millions, it’s not New Year’s Day until the 12, 350 pounds, crystal-covered ball drops in Times Square!
But the segue into the new year has not always been a crystal ball.
The New Year’s Eve Ball Drop will occur on December 31, 2025, at midnight, to signify a transition from 2025 to 2026, a shedding of the old and an adorning of the new. Adolph Ochs, the owner of the New York Times, originated the ball drop on December 31, 1907. One of the year’s most anticipated traditions, the ball drop brings friends, families, and strangers together for a grand celebration.
Hundreds of thousands attend the event in Times Square, New York City, to celebrate the release of old things and hope for new and better things to come in 2026. When twenty-twenty-five’s days are fulfilled or spent, the new year will present itself as a year of discoveries and fortune that awaits those who hope and look forward to dreams and changes.
Millions watch the televised event worldwide.
Why drop a ball to celebrate the beginning of a new year?
The first Times Square New Year’s Eve Celebration was in 1904, which included a fireworks display. The falling hot ash from fireworks raised safety concerns, and the display was banned in 1906.
The first Times Square ball was constructed of wood and iron, with 25-watt light bulbs, and dropped in 1907. Since then, the Times Square ball has changed more than a few times. The Constellation ball, made of Waterford Crystals, is the current iteration of nine changes to the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve.
Based on research, there is a similarity between the Times Square ball and a ball used much earlier, in the eighteenth century, to indicate the time of day.
“According to Britannica, “Each iteration of Times Square’s celebratory sparkling ball is modeled on a much older practice. Sometimes called time balls, the concept was originally a practical one: a ball descended from a pole or pulley system to alert passersby as to the time of day. One of the first time balls, installed in 1833 at the Royal Greenwich Observatory outside London, England, dropped daily at 1 PM so that captains of ships passing on the River Thames could verify the time of their chronometers. Since typically only the rich owned personal clocks and watches, the rest of the population relying on local sundials, time balls provided a solution to standardizing what time it actually was.”
Whether acknowledging the time of day or celebrating the time, a ball has been an appealing symbol.
Since 1907, there have been only a few instances that affected whether the ball dropped or the event was well attended.
I really don’t remember much about the Times Square ball drop in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Who would attend the ball drop in the middle of a pandemic?
Not many. Times Square was nearly empty, but there was a ball drop to mark the 2020 New Year.
Was there ever a time that the ball did not drop?
In 1942 and 1943, during World War II, there was no Times Square ball drop. People gathered to mark the beginning of the new year in 1942 and 1943, but not as revelers with all kinds of noisemakers. With nightly dimouts being instituted to protect the city from attack during the war, the New Year began with a moment of silence.
We salute the grand tradition of 116 years of the New Year’s Eve ball drop!
I hope you are happy and well.
Have a Happy New Year!