Where To Celebrate New Year’s Eve 2023 In & Around Guilford

GUILFORD, CT — From ringing in the new year at a local restaurant to participating in a New Year's Day 5K race, there are several ways to celebrate the arrival of 2024 in and around Guilford

Here is a look at some events happening in and around Guilford on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day:

• New Year’s Day Open House - Medad Stone Tavern, Guilford: The event will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
• New Year's Day Hike, Westwoods Trails, Guilford: The hike through hardwood forest on Guilford's western shore includes a view of a rock split by a tree, glacial boulders and the Lost Lake Overlook. Registration required.
• New Year's Eve celebration at The Wharf, Madison: The New Year's Eve menu will be available from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• New Year's Eve at WoodWinds, Branford: From 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., enjoy DJ entertainment with a full dance floor, party favors, hors d'oeuvres stations and other snacks, and a midnight champagne toast. The price is $139.75, inclusive of gratuity.
• New Year's Eve at Longley's, Branford: A $100 New Year's Eve package includes an open bar, full buffet, and a midnight champagne toast.
• New Year's Eve at Water's Edge, Westbrook: Early dinner seating is available at $89 per person, and includes a four-course gourmet dinner with a champagne or apple cider toast. A dinner and dance party will include two live bands, an open premium bar, and a four-course dinner for $199 per person.

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is the dropping of the giant ball in New York City’s Times Square. Other U.S. cities have adopted iterations of the ball drop — the Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho, for example.

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.