Something Old, Something New: New Year’s
Eve Then and Now
New Year's is not new. Some form of it has
been celebrated for thousands of years on every continent and probably for as
long as there have been human communities. The first recorded celebrations
come from some 2,5000 years ago in Mesopotamia-Iraq. This is the place most
historians agree civilization started. Around spring and fall equinoxes, when
days and nights were of equal length, they celebrated both the planting season
and the harvest season as days of renewal for the cities, the surrounding areas, and of the earth
itself. “Akitu” was the name of the festival, and historians look to
those week-long celebrations as the first recorded instances of celebrating
what might be called a “new year.” Of course, such celebrations are really
much older that that; people did things long before humans invented
writing and keeping records. But once farming and agriculture became
mainstays of human activity people simply had to know the when the ideal times
were to plant and to harvest. Knowing the cycle of the seasons became essential
to city survival. We also realized that
what happened in the sky influenced and heralded what would happen on earth, so
we kept track of what we now call equinoxes, solstices, moon phases and more. And to attempt to have these occurrences
benefit us, we developed rituals, celebrations, and practices to try to influence
the force or forces that controlled those things. We were literally hoping and
praying for outcomes that would benefit us in the future. New year celebrations
were originally a part of this process. And like most human celebrations, the observances
involved ritual foods, ritual actions, ritual music, ritual dancing, and ritual
prayer and introspection. Humans tend to meet the same realities of life in
pretty much the same ways, and ritual, religion, symbol, and music are all among
the ways we signify that something important and special is taking place. It is
simply what we humans do.
However, when we think of New Year’s Eve celebrations
today most folks are not thinking about global cultural history and/or how what
we do today links to what humans have done for thousands of years. Most folks are
instead thinking about Times Square, New York City, the countdown, and that big
shiny ball dropping down. Even if we are not planning to watch it, we are all aware
of this event happening. I used to love to watch it on TV when I was much younger,
begging my mother to let me stay up so I could watch it. The crowd, the colors,
the noise and the outlandishness all amazed me. There was the confetti, the movie
and music stars, the noise, the big ball and the drama of thousands of people
counting down all together, me along with them. It was a secular ritual, I
realized as I grew older and understood it more. And I was and am still
fascinated by how so many aspects of it connect to some of our most ancient ways.
Some 1 million people crowd into Times
Square for this celebration-1 MILLION people. The thought that 1 million people
would willingly want to stand together in freezing cold weather in New York City
for hours is mind-boggling. And many of those people there are drunk, high, and
almost out of control. What sense does that make?? No one in their right mind
would suggest doing that as a fun way to spend time in New York City. But of course, we are often “out of our minds”
in the midst of a ritual. Ritual can transform us and take us to a totally different
state of being in which the irrational makes perfect sense. It is estimated that
over 1 billion—1 BILLION- people watch the show on TV around the world, even in
places where the time differences mean it may already really be past midnight
and a new year where they actually are. Who
knows how many people watch it on the web or YouTube or Facebook Live. It is
truly a worldwide phenomenon-one of the very few things that universally and
temporarily unite us as a species. Whether we watch it or deliberately avoid it,
we are all aware of it. It is that universal. But how did this come to be? How
did this place and this particular ceremony come to symbolize the coming of a
New Year to so many people of so many different nationalities, colors,
religions, and cultures? Well, it all
started with one businessman and some unique things about the early part of the
20th century.
Adolph Ochs was publisher of the New York
Times, for which Times Square was named. The late 19th and early 20th
centuries saw the advent of new technologies that could seemingly conquer
heights, hold up the new “skyscraper” buildings, light up the whole night sky, create
vehicles that did not need animals to move, and much, much more. It seemed as
if something new was being developed every day. Ochs and the Times were spearheading
the northern and western growth of New York City beyond its Lower Manhattan starting
point by the rivers and the ports. He wanted to call attention to and spur this
uptown growth; he saw it as essential to the economic growth of the city. Ochs liked
to throw lavish parties, and he was one of the early promoters of “grand spectacles”
that the 20th century would so regularly produce. To that end he started
staging New Year’s Eve parties that filled the air above the Times building with
fireworks and bright lights. These events became immensely popular, and they
drew thousands of spectators uptown to view them and to think about the area. But
fireworks above meant hot ashes falling to the ground below. This was clearly
dangerous, so the city banned the fireworks for 1907 going into1908.
Ochs’s flashy fireworks display had started drawing
Manhattanites uptown and away from the traditional New Year’s celebration at
Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. There
worshipers and celebrants listened to the tolling of the church’s bells to signal
a new year. The bells were amplified on sound trucks and they were still a popular
draw. But it was still somewhat “old school.” If Ochs was going to continue to
draw people uptown and away from Trinity, he needed a new big draw: a new spectacle.
He found one a few blocks away from his office by doing what we now call “re-positioning,”
“Time balls’ were an answer to the problem
of keeping accurate time at sea for ships. Developed in the early 1800’s, most port
cities had them by the turn of the century. They were huge colorful balls that
would rest atop high buildings. They would descend exactly at noon every day so
that maritimers could know the exact time. They could then use that information
to set their chronometers, measure longitude, and navigate more accurately. As the telegraph developed, coastal cities
with time balls in place began to telegraph the exact time to other cities. Humans had managed to figure a way to
precisely measure and standardize time in a huge way, just in time for the new
factory age of mass production that was to come. Most cities had time balls by
the early 1900’s, and most people knew what they were. Philadelphia had one
atop the Bourse Building for several years. Western Union, the major telegraph
company, had one at its New York office near the Times. It would descend every weekday
at noon to let people know exactly what time it was. Ochs had found what he
needed; he had a large time ball built, and on December 31st, 1907 thousands
of people gazed up at the New York Times building and spied a big, shiny, 700
pound ball atop a flagpole on the building that was awash in huge multi-colored
electric lights. As midnight approached, workers began lowering the giant ball
by ropes and pullies. On top of the Times building a giant electric sign counted
down the seconds until the ball reached the bottom. At the precise moment it
landed, the number “1908” lit up the night sky. People went nuts; there were
shots fired, people kissing each other, trumpets and noisemakers going off, and
these new things called “automobiles” honking their horns. It was a smash hit,
and both a tradition and a new ritual were born.
The ball drop was immensely popular. Promoting
and covering it quickly became a staple of magazine and newspaper articles, and
when radio came along it went national. It and Times Square eventually became some
of the signature things about New York City. When TV came on the scene, it became
a big draw for network TV, pulling in millions of viewers and eventually billions
of advertising dollars. It is now an international phenomenon, and I cannot see
that stopping anytime soon. The ball has been re-designed several times, it has
been made of different substances, and it is now run by a computer timed to the
atomic clock. It is not the same 700 pond ball that started the tradition.
But in many important ways it really is the
same ball. Beneath all of this technological change and modernization and improvement
we can see the age-old themes of meeting important events the world regularly
brings to us with ritual, symbol, and as a group. Yes, it started a as a publicity
stunt, a smart business move, and perhaps just as a way of showing off. But it
has since become something all its own. It is a worldwide, collective ritual
now. It belongs to the world. And for
just a little while, that world becomes one big village when it happens. That
is the power of ritual taking place, and I think that is a good thing.
So however you
celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s, know that you are standing with
countless generations of humans who have gone before us; who have collectively
looked at what was going on around them and figured out ways to respond to it.
Yes, we are digital and modern and “civilized,” whatever that means. Essentially,
though, we are just humans navigating our way through the world and trying to
cope, survive, and maybe do a little better. Thus it is, and thus it has always
been. Do have a very Happy New Year.
(If you are interested in time balls, here are
two links that explain there history and how they were used)
