Where To Celebrate New Year’s Eve 2022 In Commack

COMMACK, NY — As 2022 winds down and 2023 is right around the corner, Long Islanders are finding a myriad of ways to ring in the new year.

Here is what's happening on New Year's Eve near Commack:

• What: New Year's Eve Comedy Night at Smithtown Performing Arts Center
  • When: 10 p.m. (doors open at 9 p.m.)
  • Where: 2 East Main St., Smithtown
  • Who: Headliner Chris Monty, Tony Landolfi, Debbie D Amore, and Mary Capone, the MC.
• Info: A night of laughs to ring in the New Year, right on Main Street in Smithtown. $75 per ticket ($70 for members) includes open bar of beer and wine, hors d'oeuvres, and a champagne toast at midnight.
• What: Comedy Shows At The Paramount
  • Where: 70 New York Ave., Huntington
  • When: Shows at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
  • More Info: Chris Distefano is on his "Right Intention Wrong Move" tour. Ring in 2023 with some laughs!
• What: “New Year's Eve on the Lanes” at Bowlero Melville
  • Where: 895 Walt Whitman Road, Melville
  • When: 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. New Year's Eve
  • More Info: Special packages for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Here is a look at some additional events happening around Long Island:

• Fox Hollow New Year's Even Party
• Countdown to 12 "Noon" Year's Eve at the Long Island Children's Museum
• Black and White Party at Crest Hollow
• Fishes and Wishes Party at the Long Island Aquarium
• Chateau Briand New Year's Eve parties
• New Year's Gigglin' Eve at Governor's Comedy Club
• New Year's Eve Gala at East Wind Long Island

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.