BrainStuff Classics: Why Do We Drop a Ball on New Year's Eve?

The tradition of dropping a ball in Times Square to mark the beginning of a new year only goes back about a century. Learn about the history -- plus four weird things that other cities drop instead -- in this classic episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Vogel Bomb here with a special holiday classic for you.
In this one, we go into the traditions behind the
New Year's Eve ball drop. I mean, countdowns seem natural,
but why the drop? Plus how the ball drop led
to celebrants dropping all kinds of other things to ring

(00:24):
in the new year. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bomb Here.
Every December thirty first, wrongs of revelers eager to ring
in a new year crowd into New York City's Times
Square in the final minutes of the year. As the
clock ticks away seconds towards midnight, an opulent, oversized ball
descends from above, and when it reaches its destination, the

(00:45):
crowd cheers. The current Times Square ball is the seventh
version to perform the duty of ringing in the new year.
The tradition began in nineteen oh seven, when a ball
made of iron and wood covered in one hundred light
bulbs descended a flagpole. The latest version of the ball
boasts two thousand, six hundred and eighty eight crystal triangles
and thirty two two hundred and fifty six led modules.

(01:08):
The new Year's ball drop has its roots in naval history,
inspired by the time balls introduced in the early eighteen hundreds.
These devices were affixed to towers and coastal towns and
would drop a ball at a precise moment of the
day to alert nearby ship's captains when to precisely set
their navigational tools called chronometers. The current New Year's tradition
is a particularly American affair, and the times square ball

(01:31):
drop has inspired numerous imitators around the country and even
around the world. So today, which is New Year's Eve,
if you're listening on the day that this episode comes out,
I wanted to share some of the weirdest, most wonderful
things people drop to ring in the New year. For
more than two decades, a city in central Pennsylvania has
celebrated the turn of the calendar by dropping a mass

(01:51):
of bologney. The spiced tube meat is popular in the region,
and Lebanon, Pennsylvania, is home to several producers. Plus there's
an annual balooney festival every January. For the first twenty
years of the New Year's event, a single two hundred
pound bloony that's about ninety kilos would be lowered by
an industrial crane right before midnight. In twenty sixteen, though,

(02:12):
the tradition shifted from one massive boloone to twenty individual
blocks of bolony weighing in at ten pounds or four
and a half kilos each. The reason for the change
the organizers of the annual event donate the meat to
charity after the drop, and it took too long in
the hours after midnight to slice up one gigantic baloney. Apparently,
for twenty twenty, a disco ball will be attached to

(02:33):
the bolony. Let's go next to Saint George's, Bermuda, where
revelers don't just get to celebrate a few hours before
most of the rest of the Western Hemisphere. They get
to watch a gigantic onion drop at the stroke of
midnight as musicians, artists, performers and street food vendors liven
up King's Square. Saint George's, founded in sixteen twelve, was

(02:54):
Bermuda's first English settlement, and the island became a major
producer and exporter of onions. A glittering golden onion covered
in light bulbs descends above the square, which overlooks Hamilton
Harbor and a laser show and fireworks traditionally follow the event,
but back to Pennsylvania. In addition to the Beoloni that
drops in Lebanon, a less than two hours away, the

(03:15):
city of Bethlehem celebrates with an enormous peep drop that
wraps up a two day celebration known as Peep's Fest.
This sugary and divisive marshmallow confection is generally produced in
the shape of a bird, and it's most commonly found
in the US around the Easter holiday. Just Born. The
Bethlehem based candy company responsible for Peeps also makes Mike

(03:36):
and Ikes and Hot Tomali's. The giant peep dropped on
New Year's Eve weighs four hundred pounds that's about one
hundred and eighty kilos. And finally, let's head to sunny
Arizona and the city of show Low. This locale gets
its unique name from its days as a frontier town
without a name. The story goes that two rival cowboys
and ranch co odors were playing an extended game of poker,

(03:58):
and the loser would vacate the city, leaving the other
with hundreds of acres of land. The deciding hand in
who would stay and who would go, according to city lore,
would belong to whichever cowboy could show Low by holding
the lowest value card possible, and the winner turned over
a two of Clubs. These days, not only is the
city's main street named Deuce of Clubs, but show Low

(04:21):
drops a colossal illuminated playing card every December thirty first.
It's just a block away from where a statue commemorating
the card game once stood Once stood. Because the original
fiberglass statue accidentally burned down during a candlelight vigil in
twenty sixteen, it's being replaced by a bronze one. Here's
to a safe and flame free New Year's Eve. Today's

(04:47):
episode is based on the article for totally random things
people drop on New Year's Eve on how stuffworks dot com,
written by Christopher Hasiotis. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio
in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced
by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.