Happy New Year from BT Partners! As we ring in the new year, many people will be making resolutions for 2020 and celebrating with family and friends. Here are ten stats and fun facts about New Year’s Eve. Have fun and be safe!
1. “Over 7,000 police officers patrol Times Square on New Year’s Eve.”
2. “Time Square New Year’s Eve Ball was first dropped in 1907 after there was a fireworks ban. The original ball weighed 700 pounds and featured 100 25-watt bulbs. Much different to the ball we know today!”
3. “The first New Year’s celebration dates back 4,000 years. Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome, was the first to declare Jan. 1 a national holiday. He named the month after Janus, the Roman god of doors and gates. Janus had two faces, one looking forward and one looking back. Caesar felt that a month named after this god would be fitting.”
4. “65 percent of people make New Year’s Resolutions; (9.2 percent follow through!).”
5. “The early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year. The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as New Year’s Day.”
6. “Spanish tradition is to eat 12 grapes at midnight of 31st December. While eating these grapes, Spaniards will make wishes. This tradition is believed to bring good luck for those who practice it. This grape eating tradition started back in 1895.”
7. “Hershey, PA drops a giant Kiss to ring in the new year. Other Pennsylvania towns have traditions that play off their names. In Mechanicsburg, they drop a wrench. In Dillsburg, they drop a pickle.”
8. “In Colombia, Cuba and Puerto Rico, some families stuff a large doll, which is called Mr. Old Year, with memories from the past year. They also dress him in clothes from the outgoing year. At midnight, he is set ablaze, thus burning away the bad memories.”
9. “People have been pledging to change their ways in the new year—whether by getting in shape, quitting a bad habit or learning a skill—for an estimated 4,000 years now. The tradition is thought to have first caught on among the ancient Babylonians, who made promises in order to earn the favor of the gods and start the year off on the right foot. (They would reportedly vow to pay off debts and return borrowed farm equipment.)”
10. “The top 10 resolutions are to lose weight, eat more healthily, exercise, stop smoking, stick to a budget, save money, get more organised, be more patient, find a better job and to just be a better person over all.”
