New Year’s Eve 2023 In The Granite State

MANCHESTER, NH — It is almost time to begin anew and say, “See ya,” to 2023.

Whether dancing and enjoying music, dinner and wine, comedy events, or even all three, there is much fun on New Year’s Eve in New Hampshire.

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.

Here is a look at some additional events happening in New Hampshire:

• Noon Year’s Eve Party At the Concord Library On Dec. 30
• New Year’s Eve Dinner & Disco at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord!
• Recycled Percussion's Winter Tour In Manchester at the Palace Theatre
• New Year’s Eve Comedy Gala in Nashua
• First Night Portsmouth
• Bedford Village Inn New Year’s Eve Dinner
• Greenleaf New Year’s Eve Dinner in Milford
• New Year’s Eve Comedy at Murphy’s Taproom & Carriage House in Bedford
• Ring in the New Year at Lamie’s Inn & The Old Salt in Hampton
• New Year’s Eve Fireworks Shoot on Hampton Beach
• Averill House Vineyard 5 Course Dinner and Wine Pairing in Brookline
• Swinging Big Band New Year’s Eve Dinner with LaBelle Lights in Derry
• Children’s Museum Family New Year’s Celebration in Dover

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.