New York City is one of the world’s best places to be for New Year’s Eve.
New Year’s Eve 2025
The Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball Drop is world-famous.
Other things to do in NYC on New Year’s Eve include:
- Carlos Henriquez Nonet at Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center. 🇵🇷
- Chris Botti jazz holiday residency at the Blue Note New York. 🇮🇹
- Metropolitan Opera premieres a new production on New Year’s Eve. 🇫🇷
- Winter Village Bryant Park is open.
Latin Traditions
Many regions around the world have their own new year’s schedule and traditions. They usually align with agricultural cycles such as planting or harvesting. Many Europeans originally celebrated New Year at springtime, around the spring equinox of March 21 or on the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25. Astronomical New Year in the northern hemisphere starts with the winter solstice on December 21st or 22nd. That was old Greek new year.
Modern New Year is based on Roman traditions. The earliest reference is from 153 BCE. Julius Caesar’s Julian calendar of 46 BCE, and Roman Catholic Pope Gregory XIII’s Gregorian Calendar formalized January 1st New Year’s Day as new year. The date is near the northern winter solstice, and honors the Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings, for whom January is named.
New Year’s Eve is the sixth day of Kwanzaa, celebrate “Kuumba,” creativity. If you can dream it, you can make it.
Some African American families celebrate “Watch Night” in church. It’s a commemoration of the people waiting for the Emancipation Proclamation to free all peoples in the United States, on January 1, 1863.
Though it often gets overlooked in all the New Year’s excitement, Haitian Independence Day is January 1, 1804. It marks one of the greatest humanitarian achievements of all time. An enslaved people freed themselves from the grip of one of the world’s strongest militaries, and founded a republic. It’s the only time in history this was done.
Oh, and Happy New Year. Feliz Año Nuevo.