New Year's Eve

Every year on New Year's Eve, we gather around our televisions to watch a ball drop, signifying the new year. Has this ever struck anyone else as odd? How has this one, sparkly ball in New York City come to signify the new year to people all over the world? People travel to the city from all over the country and the world to be a part of the New Year's Eve spectacle that takes place. Concerts and other forms of entertainment keep the million people in Times Square occupied until they can finally welcome in the new year with a ball slowly dropping over the course of a minute.

But how else do we know it's a new year? How do we know anything has actually changed? When my mom was little, she was not allowed to stay up until midnight to welcome in the New Year. Finally, the year she was allowed to stay up, she ran outside as the clock struck midnight, as the ball dropped on her television and the televisions of billions of people around the world. She expected the sky to light up or the numbers of the year to flash across the sky. But there was nothing.

So why do we create such a spectacle in New York City and other cities around the world on New Year's Eve? Do we need proof that it's actually a new year? Are we not content with merely knowing it's a new year? What difference does it make? Sure, we are supposed to have a clean slate-we get to start over in a new year, but that's part of the spectacle as well. And so, we need to see the ball reach the bottom, we need the fireworks to light up the sky, and we need to make resolutions to ensure ourselves that it is, indeed, a new year.