Ringing In The New Year

Have you ever thought about where the idea of “ringing in the new year” came from?

Most of us associate New Years Eve celebration with Times Square in New York and the “dropping of the ball” at midnight to signify the end of the old year and the start of a new one.

But this was not always the case. The Times Square celebrations didn’t begin until 1907. Prior to that, people, thousands of people, gathered outside the Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan to listen for the church bells ringing out at midnight to announce the start of the new year. For hundreds of years in the U.S., and in many other parts of the world, church bells rang to announce and acknowledge important events. Ringing the bells at Trinity Church was a continuation of that tradition. Thus the idea of ringing in the new year was established at the Trinity Church in the mid 1800’s and continued until the ball began to drop in Times Square in 1907. The location and celebrations have changed over the years, but the saying that we will “ring in the New Year” remains, and now you know where it came from.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
-Lord Tennyson

Whatever you do tonight to celebrate the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, ring it in with love and joy and hope for a better year ahead for us all.

Happy New Year dear chums!