First Night Alexandria Returns In 2022, Other New Year's Eve Events

ALEXANDRIA, VA —First Night Alexandria Festival of Music & More, is back, offering entertainment throughout New Year's Eve to ring in 2023.

First Night Alexandria has been a tradition since 1994, offering a variety of performers at venues across the city. This year's event will run from noon to midnight. A fireworks show will kick off at midnight and last approximately 15 minutes.

If fireworks are canceled due to weather, they will be moved to Sunday night.

Venues for performances include George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Durant Community Arts Center and Market Square. Fireworks can be viewed at various locations, including Market Square, George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Canal Center Plaza, Rivergate Park, Oronoco Bay Park, Founders Park, Waterfront Park, Windmill Hill Park, Ford's Landing and Jones Point Park.

First Night Alexandria is a ticketed event. For more information and tickets, visit www.firstnightalexandria.org.

Here is a look at some additional events happening near Alexandria:

• The Seldom Scene, Eastman String Band, & Wicked Sycamore at The Birchmere
• New Year's Eve Cocktail Party at The Light Horse
• The Loft at Lena's New Year's Eve Party
• Joy on the Avenue's New Year's Eve Pajama Party
• New Year's Eve at Cafe 44
• New Year's Eve with Black Coffee at Blackwall Hitch
• No. 9 Lounge's New Years Eve 2022 Bash
• More New Year's Eve dining options at Alexandria restaurants
• Toast to the New Year at Capital Wheel in National Harbor
• Wilson Wonderland New Year's Eve
• Watch Night Falls Church

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is, of course, the dropping of the giant ball in New York City’s 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, 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.