New Year's Eve 2023 In McLean: Mystery Dinner, More Events

MCLEAN, VA — Where do you plan to ring in 2024? From extravagant galas to live music to cozy cocktail parties, there’s something for everyone in the McLean area this New Year’s Eve.

We've rounded up some event options around McLean and New Year's Eve television programming. We will update this guide up to New Year's Eve.

Here is a look at events happening in around McLean:

• A New Year's Eve Maggiano's Murder Mystery Dinner Event: A night of Murder, Mystery and Mayhem and New Year's Eve Celebrations at Maggiano's Tyson's Corner, 2001 International Drive, McLean.
• New Year's Eve at Entyse, The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner
• Kids New Years Eve, Shipgarten, 7581 Colshire Drive McLean
• Grandiose New Year's Eve Gala, 7920 Jones Branch Drive, McLean.
• Watch Night Falls Church, 100 block of West Broad Street, Falls Church.
• The Legwarmers New Year's Eve Dance Party at State Theatre, 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church.
• CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live: Hosts Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper from New York City's Times Square at 8 p.m. on CNN.
• Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest: Ryan Seacrest with co-hosts Liza Koshy, Jessie James Decker, Ciara, D-Nice, Billy Porter at 8 p.m. on ABC.

Here is a look at some additional events happening in the area:

• Seventh Annual Wilson Wonderland NYE Celebration
• New Year's Eve Masquerade Ball at Clarendon Ballroom
• DMV New Year's Eve Casino Night
• First Night Alexandria
• Big Night DC New Year's Eve Extravaganza at Gaylord National Harbor
• Noon Year's Eve in Vienna
• Noon Yards Eve at the Yards DC

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.