For more than one hundred years, a giant ball has been dropped in Times Square to celebrate the New Year. The event was first organized by New York Times owner Adolph Ochs, and there really wasn’t any significance behind it. He just wanted a giant extravaganza that would attract attention, and the ball more than did its job. In fact, many Americans now associate a ball dropping with New Year’s Eve, but it turns out quite a few cities and towns throughout the United States drop far weirder and far more meaningful things to usher in the year change.
I’m sure there are ways to go through and check what every single town drops at the end of the year, but luckily, supremely underrated YouTube Channel Mental Floss has already done that on this week’s episode. In just under nine minutes, host John Green plows through some of the weirdest and wildest town traditions, many of which actually make sense when the local history is examined.
For example: what do you think Hershey, Pennsylvania drops on New Year’s Eve? A gigantic Hershey’s Kiss of course. What about Miami, Florida? An orange with sunglasses on it. What about Flagstaff, Arizona? A glowing pinecone.
Some of these New Year’s Eve extravaganzas sound unbelievably awesome. Some of them sound like the worst time ever, but in a weird way, I do wish I could experience all of them.
To check out some more Mental Floss, watch the video below about the origins of alcoholic drinks, which is, of course, very topical for New Year’s.
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