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 episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff.
Lorn vog obam here. Every December thirty one, 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 takes away seconds towards midnight,
an opulent, oversized ball descends from above, and when it

(00:23):
reaches its destination, the 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
o seven, when a ball made of iron and wood
covered in a hundred light bulbs descended a flagpole. The
latest version of the ball boasts two thousand, six d
eight eight crystal triangles and thirty two two hundred and

(00:44):
fifty six l ed modules. 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
fixed 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

(01:07):
American affair, and the Times square ball 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 that
people drop to ring in the new year. For more
than two decades, a city in central Pennsylvania has celebrated

(01:28):
the turn of the calendar by dropping a massive bologny.
The spiced tube meat is popular in the region, and Lebanon, Pennsylvania,
is home to several producers. Plus there's an annual Bolognay
festival every January. For the first twenty years of the
New Year's event, a single two hundred pound bologny that's
about nine kilos would be lowered by an industrial crane

(01:49):
right before midnight. In twenty sixteen, though, the tradition shifted
from one massive bologny to twenty individual blocks of bologny
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 bologne, apparently for a disco

(02:11):
ball will be attached to the Bolognay. Let's go next
to St. 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. St. George's,
founded in sixteen twelve, was Bermuda's first English settlement, and

(02:35):
the island became a major producer and exporter of onions.
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 Bologna that drops in Lebanon, less than two
hours away, the city of Bethlehem celebrates with an enormous

(02:57):
peep drop that wraps up a two days celebration known
as Peep's Fest. This sugary and divisive Marchmallow 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 Nikes and Hot Tamali's. The giant peep

(03:18):
dropped on New Year's Eve weighs four hundred pounds. That's
about a 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 cooders were playing an extended game
of poker, and the loser would vacate the city, leaving

(03:40):
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 cities main street named Deuce of Clubs,
but show Low drops a colossal illuminated playing card every

(04:02):
December thirty one. 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
candle at vigil in it's being replaced by a bronze one.
Here's to a safe and flame free New Year's Eve.

(04:25):
Today's episode was written by Christopher Hasseiotas and produced by
Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio's
How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of
other celebratory topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works
dot com, and for more podcast from my heart Radio,
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