New Year’s Eve NYC 2023 celebrates the start of the new year in the Gregorian calendar.
It is the contemporary expression of an ancient Roman tradition gone global. There are many New Years around the world, but most of the world celebrates a variation of the Roman new year.
New Year’s Eve NYC 2023
Pedrito Martinez plays a Cuban rumba and timba Pre-New Year’s Eve Party at Drom in NYC’s East Village on Friday, December 30, 2022 at 9pm. Party starts with a Shani Talmor salsa dance class at 7pm. From $25. 🇨🇺
New Year’s Eve 2023 is Saturday, December 31, 2022.
On the sixth day of Kwanzaa, celebrate “Kuumba,” creativity. If you can dream it, you (or someone in the future) can make it.
Celebrate National Champagne Day. 🇫🇷
Celebrate Watch Night, the African American tradition of spending New Year’s Eve in church awaiting the arrival of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. 🇺🇸
The Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball Drop 2023 is in Times Square NYC on Saturday, December 31, 2022 from 6pm – 12:20am. Free, but go hours early to enter the square.
NEW PRODUCTION PREMIERE
The Metropolitan Opera opens David McVicar’s new production of Giordano’s Italian opera “Fedora,” the tale of a Russian princess who falls in love with her fiancé’s murderer, at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center on New Year’s Eve, Saturday, December 31, 2022 at 6:30pm. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva stars. From $39.50. 🇮🇹
Chris Botti plays his 18th Holiday Residency of Jazz at the Blue Note in Greenwich Village, on Saturday, December 31, 2022 at 7 & 10pm (5 & 9:30pm doors). From $109. 🇮🇹
The Carlos Henriquez Nonet plays jazz with a new year’s toast at Dizzy’s Club in Jazz at Lincoln Center, Saturday, December 31, 2022 at 7:30pm & 11pm. Tables from $285/$400. 🇵🇷
The Annette A Aguilar Trio, featuring Uruguayan guitar hero Bele Beledo, plays late night jazz on New Year’s Eve morning at the Uptown Garrison in Hudson Heights, Manhattan on Sunday, January 1, 2023 from 1:30-4:30am. No cover. 🇧🇷🇳🇮🇺🇾
New Year’s Eve Traditions
We celebrate New Year’s according to the Gregorian calendar. It was implemented by Pope Gregory XIII in October 1582. It improved on Julius Caesar’s Julian calendar by adding leap years to keep the calendar aligned with the traditional seasons.
Many countries have their own unique way to celebrate.
A Spanish tradition popular around the Spanish-speaking world is to eat 12 grapes as the last twelve seconds of the year are counted down. The tradition started as a marketing stunt in 1909 when Valencian grape growers had a surplus of grapes.
Some Latins eat fish because fish don’t swim backwards. Colombians where yellow underwear.
Americans of the United States traditionally toast New Year’s Eve with French Champagne, the sparkling wine from the Champagne region. Spaniards drink Cava, the Spanish sparkling wine from Catalonia. Italians drink Prosecco from the Veneto region (Venice) of Italy.
However you celebrate, Happy New Year!