Happy New Year! - Oldhouseweb.com

By Deborah Holmes

-- Photo, Times Square Business Improvement District

A television commentator was remarking this morning that Americans just don't celebrate New Year's Eve like they used to. He was lamenting a trend toward staying home for informal celebrations with neighbors and friends rather than dressing to the nines and celebrating in an elegant ball room.

While extravagant celebrations have been part of America's history, so, too have other ways of marking the passage of time. Consider, for example, the memoirs of John Franklin Smith, born September 19, 1852, in Bates County, Missouri, one of 13 children.

"We never worked on Saturday evenings, or Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July, but always done a good day's work on New Years Day, and I have followed my father's ruling to the present time, do something on New Years Day and you will be busy all the year." -- recorded as part of the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-40, Library of Congress American Memory Collection.

Others marked the New Year with special foods. Friends of mine who grew up in the south just have to have Hoppin' John, a dish made with black-eyed peas and ham, on New Year's Day. The dish has been a tradition for centuries, and is supposed to bring good luck in the new year.

Luck was in short supply for Confederate and Union soldiers alike, who spent Dec. 31, 1862 and Jan. 1, 1863 in horrific battles in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. After two days of fighting, 23,000 soldiers were missing, wounded, or dead. Prematurely anticipating a great victory for the Confederacy, General Braxton Bragg remarked, "God has granted us a Happy New Year." Soldiers in the field were hardly in a mood for celebration. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C. on New Year's Day 1863, President Abraham Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation: "I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within any States...in rebellion against the United States shall be...forever free."

In recent years, many American cities have organized alcohol-free street parties on New Year's Eve. Then there's the granddaddy of all celebrations -- in Times Square, New York City. The first ball lowering conducted on Dec. 31, 1907 using a 700 pound structure of iron and wood, decorated with 100 25-watt light bulbs. The ball being lowered on Dec. 31, 2002 is covered in Waterford crystal panels, weighs a half a ton, and is illuminated by computer- controlled mirrors, halogen, strobe and colored lights.

From the Times Square Business Improvement District, some facts about New York's Times Square celebration:

The first rooftop celebration atop One Times Square, a fireworks display, took place in 1904 and was produced by The New York Times to inaugurate their new headquarters in Times Square and celebrate the renaming of Longacre Square to Times Square.
The first Ball Lowering celebration atop One Times Square was held on December 31, 1907 and is now a worldwide symbol of the turn of the New Year, seen via satellite by a billion people each year.
In 1942 and 1943 the Ball Lowering was suspended due to the wartime dim-out. The crowds who still gathered in Times Square celebrated with a minute of silence followed by chimes ringing out from an amplifier truck parked at One Times Square.
The original New Year's Eve Ball weighed 700 pounds and was 5 feet in diameter. It was made of iron and wood and was decorated with 100 25-watt light bulbs.
The New Year's Eve Ball is the property of the building owners of One Times Square.
The ball, designed by Waterford Crystal, is a geodesic sphere, six-feet in diameter, and weighs approximately 1,070 pounds.
The ball is covered with a total of 504 Waterford crystal triangles. Each New Year, 72 of the crystal triangles are replaced with a new design. In 2000, the triangles were engraved with the "Star of Hope"; in 2001 "Hope for Abundance" and in 2002, "Hope for Healing". Triangles vary in size, and range in length from 4 3/4 inches to 5 3/4 inches per side.
The 504 Waterford Crystal crystal triangles are bolted to 168 translucent triangular lexan panels which are attached to the aluminum frame of the ball.
The ball lighting and special effects are by Con Edison.
The exterior of the ball is illuminated by 168 halogen light bulbs.
The interior of the Ball is illuminated by 432 light bulbs (208 clear, 56 red, 56 blue, 56 green and 56 yellow), and 96 high intensity strobe lights which together will create bright bubbling bursts of color.
The exterior of the ball features 90 rotating pyramid mirrors that reflect light back into the audience at Times Square.
The 696 lights and 90 rotating pyramid mirrors are computer controlled, enabling the Ball to produce a state-of-the-art light show of eye-dazzling colorful patterns and a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square.