As a child the Times Square Ball always fascinated me because I had no idea what it had to do with New Years. Shouldn't there be a huge lit up number or at least a Happy New Years saying? Today I realized that I still didn't know much about this, I just figured it was one of those traditions that really doesn't make sense, so I went on the hunt.
- According to wikipedia about a billion people watch this event every year. 100 million of them are from the United States and 1 million of them are in Times Square.
- During WWII they stopped dropping it because of blackout restrictions. So instead there was a moment of silence and then chimes.
- As part of the "I Love New York" campaign in 1981-1988 the ball is changed to an apple with red and green lights. See, this I would have understood as a kid.
- Apparently the tradition came about because the publisher of the New York Times Adolph Ochs wanted to draw attention to Times Square. The first ball dropped one second after the New Year started. It weight 700 pounds and had 100 25-watt bulbs on it. I don't know if they had a good sam towing around to help them get it to it's location.
So overall, the Times Square Ball was just a publicity stunt that turned into a tradition and I've been over-thinking its significance all these years. Sometimes it's enough to just have something sparkly.
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