Google has the answer to all such burning questions, doesn’t it?
In this case, though, it’s the History News Network. Trouble is, the scholarly compendium of history-related news gets a little, well, intellectual.
After reading the story and the analysis from the anthropologist quoted, I STILL don’t understand WHY we drop a BALL in Times Square every New Year’s Eve. But I did learn that Fayetteville’s dropping a hog somewhere tonight…
Anthropologists ponder the significance of all sorts of human behavior, and this is certainly one obviously quirky tradition worthy of analysis,” says Raybeck. “This is even more the case, now that the practice is being emulated throughout the country where, at New Year’s, different communities drop an assortment of oversized objects ranging from a hog (Fayetteville, Ark.), to oranges (both Orlando, Fla. and Orange County. Calif.), to a live opossum in a cage (Brasstown, N.C.), to a carp (Prairie du Chien, Wis.). These various dropped objects both celebrate their respective locales and say goodbye to the expiring year.”
I think I’ll stay here at tracyplaces. Cheech and Chong is on the teevee and I have a couple of new books I got for Christmas. Most revelers tonight won’t care what drops from the sky at midnight or why it’s done thataway.
Happy New Year!
