New Year’s Eve 2022 In Farmington Area: First Night Hartford

FARMINGTON, CT — Those living in Farmington do not have to go far to find New Year's Eve fun and revelry on the last night of 2022.

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

• First Night Hartford: Located in Hartford just off Interstate 84, First Night Hartford events last from 2 p.m. to midnight on Dec. 31, with a plethora of events for young and old alike.

For more information on First Night Hartford, click on this link.

• For those who can't get the holiday season out of their system, Lake Compounce Amusement Park in Bristol is hosting its regular holiday lights program from 3 to 8 p.m.

There, food, several rides and a whole lot of holiday decorations will be available to see from 3 to 8 p.m., giving folks plenty of time to get back home and watch the ball drop.

For more information on Lake Compounce's Holiday Lights event, click on this link.

• The Fork & Fire restaurant, located at 838 Farmington Ave., Farmington, offers a $55 gourmet meal from 4 to 10:30 p.m. The bar will take folks to midnight, with the last call at 12:30 a.m. Info: 860-255-7674, forkandfire.net.

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.