Countdown To 2023: Where To Ring In The New Year Near Long Beach

LONG BEACH, NY — With both Christmas and Hanukkah come and gone, the celebrating doesn't have to end, as many people look forward to ringing in the New Year in fun and exciting ways.

If staying at home isn't your thing, you still have plenty of options (other than going to Times Square) for couples and families.

Here is a look at some additional events happening around Long Island:

• Fox Hollow New Year's Eve Party
• Countdown to 12 "Noon" Year's Eve at the Long Island Children's Museum
• Black and White Party at Crest Hollow
• Family New Year's Eve Party at United Skates of America in Seaford
• Fishes and Wishes Party at the Long Island Aquarium
• New Year's Gigglin' Eve at Governor's Comedy Club
• New Year's Eve Gala at East Wind Long Island
• New Year's Eve Dinner by David Burke at the Garden City Hotel
• Ugly Duckling New Year's Eve in Long Beach

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is, of course, the dropping of the giant ball in Times Square. Various cities have adopted their own iterations of the event — the Peach Drop in Atlanta, the Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho.

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, gods would grant them favor in the coming year. If they broke the promise, they would fall out of the gods' 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.