New Year Celebration: Times Square Ball

Times Square Ball :

The Times Square Ball is a time ball located atop the One Times Square building in New York City, primarily utilized as part of New Year's Eve celebrations held  in Times Square. Yearly at 11:59 p.m. EST on December 31, the ball is lowered 77 feet (23 m) down a specially designed flagpole, resting on the midnight to signal the start of the new year.

The first ball drop in Times Square took place on December 31, 1907, and has been held annually since (except in 1942 and 1943 in observance of wartime blackouts). The ball's design has also been updated over the years to reflect new advances in technologies—its original design utilized 100 incandescent light bulbs, iron, and wood in its construction, while its current incarnation features a computerized LED lighting system and an outer surface consisting of triangle-shaped crystal panels

The Times Square ball drop is one of the best-known New Year's celebrations internationally, attended by at least one million spectators yearly, with an estimated global audience of at least 1 billion.

VOILA!!

The Times Square Ball designed for the new millennium in 2000

     
  

• The fourth ball was covered with 504 crystal triangles produced by Waterford Crystal, illuminated externally with 168 halogen light bulbs, and internally with 432 light bulbs of clear, red, blue, green and yellow colors along with strobe lights and spinning mirrors.

•  Many of the triangles were inscribed with messages of a certain theme changing yearly, such as "Hope for Fellowship", "Hope for Wisdom", "Hope for Unity", "Hope for Courage", "Hope for Healing", and "Hope for Abundance".

• In 2001, the ball's crystals were engraved with the names of organizations who assisted during the September 11 attacks and the nations who were affected by the event.
• In honor of his death in 2012, a crystal triangle inscribed with the name of Dick Clark will be present on the 2013 ball
• The average temperature at midnight in New York City since the ball dropping tradition began in 1907 is 33.7 °F (1 °C).
• It has snowed during the ball drop just seven times out of 104 events (one being light snow), 1926, 1934, 1948, 1952, 1961, 1967, and 2009 and it has rained multiple times.

Major Attaraction:

Some special guests at Time Square New Year celebration:

• 2000–01: Muhammad Ali
• 2008–09: Bill and Hillary Clinton
• 2011–12: Lady Gaga
• 2012–13: The Rockettes will be the special guests who will drop the Times Square Ball

Few snapshots of this huge celebration:

Huge crowd enjoying Lady Gaga performance in 2011-12 celebration

New Year Countdown with Time Ball