Where To Celebrate New Year’s Eve 2023 In St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — As St. Petersburg gets ready to ring in the new year, there are a number of events going on around town for those looking to celebrate.

First Night St. Pete returns Dec. 31 from 4 to 8 p.m. at North Straub Park with an event filled with music, art, theatre, dance, interactive displays and more.

Here is a look at some additional events happening in St. Petersburg:

• New Year's at Noon, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Great Explorations. A family-friendly event.
• NYE on the Pier, 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., at the St. Petersburg Pier. Includes DJs, bars, food trucks and a fireworks display.
• Swingin’ the New Year, 7:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., at The Coliseum. A swing dance lesson takes place from 8 to 9 p.m.

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 ChickDrop 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.