New Year’s Eve 2022 In Palm Desert: Ring In NYE With Maroon 5

PALM DESERT, CA — New Year’s Eve is upon us again, and with it, there is no shortage of activities in Palm Desert and across Riverside County. One of the county's most original New Year’s Eve celebrations is planned again for 2022: The Temecula New Year’s Eve Grape Drop draws hundreds annually to the Temecula Civic Center.

There, a glowing grape bunch, measuring 12 feet long and 7 feet wide, and representative of the area’s award-winning wine country, is lowered from the tower at City Hall at the stroke of midnight—at both 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. The large cluster of illuminated grapes is gradually reeled down 65 feet from the third story of the Civic Center clock tower, marking the seconds before midnight. Temecula Valley is home to dozens of vintners, and grapes are the staple product.

The two countdown celebrations are open to the public outside Temecula City Hall and will feature live music, food vendors and children's activities.

Closer to home in Palm Desert, there is a first-ever concert at Acrisure Arena, where you can dance along with the band to "Sugar," "Moves Like Jagger," "Payphone" and more.

Here is a look at some additional events happening in Southwest Riverside County to ring in 2023.

• New Year's Eve Grape Drop 2022: Civic Center, Temecula
• Maroon 5 At Acrisure Arena On New Year's Eve In Palm Desert
• NYE Winterfest Carnival At Indian Wells: 2022
• 30th Annual Festival Of Lights: Riverside Mission Inn Hotel & Spa
• New Year's Eve at The Purple Room
• New Year's Eve at Miracle Springs Resort & Spa
• and more...

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.

Regardless of your resolutions, we hope you find the perfect way to ring in 2023 and have a happy New Year!