Where To Celebrate New Year’s Eve 2022 Near Mill Valley

MILL VALLEY, CA — The dropping of the giant ball in Times Square is one of the most iconic New Year’s Eve traditions, but you don't need to travel to the Big Apple to celebrate.

Mill Valley residents can ring in the new year locally.

Here are some options:

• 12th Annual New Years Eve Stand-up Comedy Showcase, San Rafael
• New Year's Eve 2023- Final Sunset Sail on San Francisco Bay, Sausalito
• Hot Buttered Rum New Year's Eve Celebration, Mill Valley

The end of one year and beginning of another is often celebrated with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish folk song whose title roughly translates to “days gone by,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica and History.com.

The history of New Year’s resolutions dates back 8,000 years to ancient Babylonians, who would make promises to return borrowed objects and pay outstanding debts at the beginning of the new year, in mid-March when they planted their crops.

According to legend, if they kept their word, pagan gods would grant them favor in the coming year. If they broke the promise, they would fall out of God’s favor, according to a history of New Year’s resolutions compiled by North Hampton Community College New Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Many secular New Year’s resolutions focus on imagining new, improved versions of ourselves.

The failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80 percent, according to U.S. News & World Report. There are myriad reasons, but a big one is they’re made out of remorse for gaining weight, for example, and aren’t accompanied by a shift in attitude and a plan to meet the stress and discomfort of changing a habit or condition.