Where To Celebrate New Year's Eve 2023 In Beverly

BEVERLY, MA — Whether you are someone who likes to head out to celebrate on New Year's Eve or stay home and watch the festivities on television the time has come to make a plan in Beverly.

Unfortunately, a downtown Beverly tradition for nearly three decades is being suspended this New Year's Eve because of declining attendance, funding and volunteers.

Beverly Main Streets Board of Directors Chair Paul Gentile said late last month that the group will not be producing Beverly's New Year on Dec. 31. He said the decision to cancel this year's event involved "a process that we did not take lightly."

"We are open to bringing future Beverly's New Year celebrations back, but it will require the proper funding and staffing to execute safely," Gentile said.

But while there will be no parade, local businesses, restaurants and bars will be having their own countdowns and champagne toasts. Patch is looking to create a list of where to hang out in the final hours, minutes or seconds of 2023.

Soma Restaurant & Bar at 256 Cabot Street will be open starting at 4 p.m. The regular menu is available and Soma will accept bar reservations for the night here.

The Cabot Theater will host New Year's Eve with Club d'ELF featuring John Medeski, Jennifer Hartswick and Natalie Cressman. Doors are at 7 p.m. with the event beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets are available here.

In the Game in Peabody will be hosting a Retro Disco Night that is child-friendly. Tickets are available here.

If you own or work at a bar, or restaurant or for another event taking place on Dec. 31 email the details to [email protected] for inclusion in updated versions of this story leading up to the big night.

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year's Eve traditions is the dropping of the giant ball in New York City's Times Square. Other U.S. cities have adopted iterations of the ball drop — the Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho, for example.

The end of one year and the 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.