Times Square Ball Drop: The fascinating history of this New Year Eve custom
Now that the year end is closer, are you all set to welcome the brand-new year. You may be even awaiting to count down the last few seconds of 2022 to ring in the New Year, right? Do you know which part of the world celebrates New Year in the grandest way? Times Square in New York City. Their celebration is marked by the tradition of New Year’s Eve Ball Drop. A giant luminous crystal ball is dropped to mark the start of the new year on the midnight of 31st December every year. Millions of people gather to experience this spectacle. Okay, but how did the tradition of begin? Let’s delve into the interesting backstory!
Celebrating the inauguration
Turns out, in 1904, the New York Times opened its brand-new headquarters at 1, Times Square. Now, the newspaper giant’s owner Adolph Ochs wanted to celebrate this milestone that coincided with the New Year’s Eve. Guess what he did? He arranged for grand fireworks show that continued for the next few years.
However, Ochs was not really satisfied with the fireworks alone and wanted to do something bigger. His aim was simple, to let New Yorkers celebrate the year end and welcome the new year like never before alongside celebrating the newspaper headquarters' birthday. With this in mind, Ochs commissioned Artkraft Strauss, a sign-making company to build a time ball that would last for all upcoming celebrations. And it did. The first New Year’s Eve Ball dropped on 31st December 1907, midnight and has ever since been world’s most exquisite New Year celebration. It was inspired by the smaller time ball displayed by the city’s Trinity Church ahead of Christmas, dropped from the Western Union Telegraph Building.
The ball dropping ritual
The original ball was made of iron and wood and weighed 700 pounds with a diameter of 5 feet. It was endowed with 100 incandescent light bulbs. This New Year’s Eve Ball, which is also known as the Times Square Ball, has been dropped every year except 1942 and 1943 when there was a citywide blackout due to the ongoing World War II.
As for the ritual, the ball is made to slide down a 141 feet high flagpole over the course of 60 seconds starting with 11:59pm on 31st December. All the year round, it stays on the roof of New York Times headquarters.
Now, as you can imagine, it reaches the ground exactly at midnight when all the bulbs light up marking the beginning of a brand-new year.
Over the years, the ball underwent several modifications. For instance, in 1920, the original ball was replaced with a wrought iron ball, while in 1955, the wrought iron one was replaced by aluminium ball. Then again in 1981, the ball underwent a change in shape and turned into an apple with only red lights and a green stem. It was in sync with the city’s marketing campaign “I Love New York.” This apple, called the Big Apple, lasted for seven years until it too was replaced by a traditional white ball displaying white lights only. It had 180 halogen bulbs and 144 strobe lights, with 12000 rhinestones within.
In 2007, the New Year’s Eve ball had a drastic makeover when it was redesigned by Waterford Crystals and made by Philips Lighting. This weatherproof ball was made bigger with a diameter of 12 feet and weighing 11000 pounds. Interestingly, this larger-than-life aluminium ball now has 2688 Waterford Crystal triangles which are lit from inside with 32256 Philips Luxeon LED lights. It drops and is followed by parades, live music, street dances and so much more. How spectacular is that! Interestingly, the drop is no longer manual rather computerised and operates on a synchronised electric winch.
Bonus fact: The ball drop is currently organised and overseen by Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment.