New Year’s Eve 2022 Near Lakewood: Parties At Clarion,

LAKEWOOD, NJ — New Year's Eve is here. While many people will be ringing in 2023 at home, you may be among those trying to decide where to go to celebrate.

There are restaurants and bars in the Ocean County area holding New Year's Eve parties, complete with a meal and a champagne toast. Some require reservations or tickets purchased ahead of time, so make sure you call today to confirm they have availability.

And most importantly, if you are headed out tonight, be sure to drink responsibly and have transportation if you are impaired. Be safe to start the year.

Here are the restaurants that are hosting New Year's Eve parties:

• Artisan's Restaurant and Brewery, 1171 Hooper Ave., Toms River. 732-244-7566
• Clarion Hotel, 815 Route 37 West, Toms River. 732-341-2400
• River Rock Restaurant and Marina Bar, 1600 Route 70, Brick. 732-840-1110.
• Beacon 70, 799 Route 70, Brick. 848-232-4235
• Bum Rogers at Island Beach State Park, Seaside Park. 732-830-2770
• Hemingway's, 612 Boulevard, Seaside Heights. 732-830-1255
• Beachcomber, 100 Ocean Terrace, Seaside Heights. 732-793-0526
• Water Street Bar & Grille, Robbins Parkway, Toms River. 732-240-4800
• Ocean View Restaurant, 2 Boulevard, Seaside Heights. 732-250-6557

Having a New Year's Eve event in Lakewood? Email karen.wall@patch.com for additions.

In addition, Seaside Heights will hold its annual First Night celebration for families from noon to 5 p.m. on the boardwalk. There are games, facepainting and more. Exit 82, the Seaside Heights tourism website, has more information.

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is, of course, the dropping of the giant ball in New York City’s Times Square. Various cities have adopted their own iterations of the event — the Peach Drop in Atlanta, the Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho.

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.