Sports Editor
The ball drop in Times Square is habitually watched on New Year’s Eve in most households nationwide, even worldwide. The five ton ball, made of over 32,000 LEDs, is a contemporary variation of a historical time signaling device. So, what is the origin of this tradition? In the nineteenth century, time ball stations set clocks to the position of the sun and stars. They were dropped at noon to help navigators and ship captains to verify their marine chronometers. However, with the invention of radio time signals, the balls became obsolete and eventually demolished.
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| Raleigh annually drops a New Year's Eve Acorn in the city. |
Numerous cities boast variations of the Times Square ball drop. Rural towns often drop live animals to welcome the New Year. Opossums, muskrats, crabs, walleye and mossbunker fish, goats and wildcats are dropped in areas in Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The items chosen for this ceremony vary from an elevator in Seattle, Washington, to watermelons in Vincennes, Indiana. Food proves to be a popular article to be dropped on this day with pickles in Mount Olive, N.C. and Dillsburg, Pa. Pennsylvania drops the most objects to signal the New Year. Florida, renowned for citrus, drops tangerines and oranges in several cities. Georgia and Wisconsin follow suit with peaches in the capital city of Atlanta, apples in Cornelia, Ga. and an 80-pound cheese wedge in Plymouth, Wis. However, some cities choose more traditional balls to drop, such as a steel one in Grand Rapids, Michigan and a simply lighted ball in Oklahoma City.
