Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bomb here with a special holiday classic for you. In this one, we go into the traditions behind the New Year's Eve ball drop. I mean, countdowns seem natural, but why the drop? Plus how the ball drop led to celebrants dropping all kinds of other things to ring in the new year. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bomb Here.
Every December thirty first, wrongs of revelers eager to ring in a new year crowd into New York City's Times Square in the final minutes of the year. As the clock ticks away seconds towards midnight, an opulent, oversized ball descends from above, and when it reaches its destination, the crowd cheers. The current Times Square ball is the seventh version to perform the duty of ringing in the new year.
The tradition began in nineteen oh seven, when a ball made of iron and wood covered in one hundred light bulbs descended a flagpole. The latest version of the ball boasts two thousand, six hundred and eighty eight crystal triangles and thirty two two hundred and fifty six led modules. The new Year's ball drop has its roots in naval history, inspired by the time balls introduced in the early eighteen hundreds.
These devices were affixed to towers and coastal towns and would drop a ball at a precise moment of the day to alert nearby ship's captains when to precisely set their navigational tools called chronometers. The current New Year's tradition is a particularly American affair, and the times square ball drop has inspired numerous imitators around the country and even
around the world. So today, which is New Year's Eve, if you're listening on the day that this episode comes out, I wanted to share some of the weirdest, most wonderful things people drop to ring in the New year. For more than two decades, a city in central Pennsylvania has celebrated the turn of the calendar by dropping a mass of bologney. The spiced tube meat is popular in the region, and Lebanon, Pennsylvania, is home to several producers. Plus there's
an annual balooney festival every January. For the first twenty years of the New Year's event, a single two hundred pound bloony that's about ninety kilos would be lowered by an industrial crane right before midnight. In twenty sixteen, though, the tradition shifted from one massive boloone to twenty individual blocks of bolony weighing in at ten pounds or four
and a half kilos each. The reason for the change the organizers of the annual event donate the meat to charity after the drop, and it took too long in the hours after midnight to slice up one gigantic baloney. Apparently, for twenty twenty, a disco ball will be attached to the bolony. Let's go next to Saint George's, Bermuda, where revelers don't just get to celebrate a few hours before
most of the rest of the Western Hemisphere. They get to watch a gigantic onion drop at the stroke of midnight as musicians, artists, performers and street food vendors liven up King's Square. Saint George's, founded in sixteen twelve, was Bermuda's first English settlement, and the island became a major
producer and exporter of onions. A glittering golden onion covered in light bulbs descends above the square, which overlooks Hamilton Harbor and a laser show and fireworks traditionally follow the event, but back to Pennsylvania. In addition to the Beoloni that drops in Lebanon, a less than two hours away, the city of Bethlehem celebrates with an enormous peep drop that wraps up a two day celebration known as Peep's Fest.
This sugary and divisive marshmallow confection is generally produced in the shape of a bird, and it's most commonly found in the US around the Easter holiday. Just Born. The Bethlehem based candy company responsible for Peeps also makes Mike and Ikes and Hot Tomali's. The giant peep dropped on New Year's Eve weighs four hundred pounds that's about one hundred and eighty kilos. And finally, let's head to sunny
Arizona and the city of show Low. This locale gets its unique name from its days as a frontier town without a name. The story goes that two rival cowboys and ranch co odors were playing an extended game of poker, and the loser would vacate the city, leaving the other with hundreds of acres of land. The deciding hand in who would stay and who would go, according to city lore, would belong to whichever cowboy could show Low by holding the lowest value card possible, and the winner turned over
a two of Clubs. These days, not only is the city's main street named Deuce of Clubs, but show Low drops a colossal illuminated playing card every December thirty first. It's just a block away from where a statue commemorating the card game once stood Once stood. Because the original fiberglass statue accidentally burned down during a candlelight vigil in twenty sixteen, it's being replaced by a bronze one. Here's
to a safe and flame free New Year's Eve. Today's episode is based on the article for totally random things people drop on New Year's Eve on how stuffworks dot com, written by Christopher Hasiotis. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.