One of the most prominent parts of celebrating the New Year in New York is the dropping of the Time ball in Times Square that has almost become a tradition since its inception on December 31st of the year 1907 to welcome with pomp and grandeur, the year 1908 which actually got its inspiration for ship navigators who would drop a ball at regular intervals to regulate their chronometers in the 19th century.
It is actually quite an old custom in America to either raise or lower an object to mark the end of a year and the beginning of another. For example, in Orange County in California, an orange is dropped while in Flagstone, Arizona, a pine cone would be dropped.
