New Year  Happy New Year Wishes(2008)
From 101lifeStyle.com New Year Eve: New Year's Eve is 31 December, the final day of the Gregorian year, and the day before New Year's Day.  New Year's Eve is a separate observance from the observance of New Year's Day. In 21st-century Western practice, New Year's Eve is celebrated with parties and social gatherings spanning the transition of the year at midnight.
Many cultures use fireworks and other forms of noise making in part of the celebration. Some of the cities most well-known for their celebrations include Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, London, Edinburgh, Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, Athens, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Manila, New York City, Las Vegas, Taipei, Hong Kong, Seoul, Chicago, San Rafael, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, Valparaiso, Niagara Falls, Ontario and Montreal. In the past 100 years the "ball dropping" on top of One Times Square in New York City, broadcast to all of America (and rebroadcast in many other countries), is a major component of the New Year celebration. The 1,070-pound, 6-foot-diameter Waterford crystal ball located high above Times Square is lowered, starting at 23:59:00 and reaching the bottom of its tower at the stroke of midnight (00:00:00). It is sometimes referred to as "the big apple" like the city itself; the custom derives from the time signal that used to be given at noon in harbors.  New Year's Eve is a public non-working holiday in the following countries, among others: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Greece, the Philippines, and Venezuela.
New Year's Eve is a major event in Las Vegas, Nevada. New Year's Eve is traditionally the busiest day of the year at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California, where the parks stay open late and the usual nightly fireworks are supplemented by an additional New Years-specific show at midnight. In New Orleans, Louisiana, another of the most popular New Year celebration venues in North America, similar crowds of hundreds of thousands gather in the French Quarter, particularly on Bourbon and Canal Street, to celebrate the New Year. The Red and White Year-end Song Festival is a 50-year-old tradition in which "25 men and 25 women are split into two teams for a seemingly endless warble." The Buddhist temple bells are rung 108 times. Many religious communities have a tradition of New Year's Eve being known as "Watch Night." The faithful of the community congregate in worship services commencing New Year's Eve night and continuing past midnight into the new year. The Watch Night is a time for giving thanks for the blessings of the outgoing year and praying for divine favor during the upcoming year.  Many cities also celebrate First Night, a non-alcoholic family-friendly New Year's Celebration, generally featuring performing artists, community events, parades, and fireworks displays. First Night began in Boston in 1976 and is now found in over 60 cities nationwide. A similar celebration is Providence, Rhode Island's Bright Night Providence, and an artist run arts celebration that started when Providence's First Night went bankrupt in 2003.
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