New Year’s In Worcester: See Events, Parties, More

WORCESTER, MA — You've made it through another 12 months. That means it's time to celebrate.

The 2022 New Year's Eve will come with the benefit of celebrations taking place on a Saturday ahead of a long weekend — giving you two days to recover from all the Dec. 31 fun.

Here are just a few events happening in the Worcester area for New Year's in 2022:

MB Lounge, 40 Grafton St., Worcester — "DJ Larry will be playing your favorite tunes as you dance your way into the New Year! Party begins at 9. Champagne toast at midnight!

Maxwell Luciano's, Union Station, Worcester — "Jay Gates Impersonates Rod Stewart & Eddie Money featuring the Muldrow Sisters."

deadhorse hill, Worcester — New Year's Eve dinners by reservation only.

Worcester Beer Garden, 64 Franklin St. — Doc Robert provides music starting at 9 p.m.

Husky's Pub, 413 Park Ave., Worcester — "We'll Karaoke the night away and don't forget the Complimentary Champagne Toast at Midnight."

White Eagle, 118 Green St., Worcester — Reservation only dinner.

EcoTarium, 222 Harrington Way, Worcester — A "Noon Year's Eve" celebration for kids. "Attendees can make a time capsule, add a 2023 resolution to the resolution wall, participate in exciting education programs, and more!"

White Room, 138 Green St., Worcester — Music starting at 8 p.m. by Jubilee Gardens and Cigareets and Whusky.

Have an event you want listed? Email neal.mcnamara@patch.com

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.