Everyone receives new clothes and little work is done. On New Year's Eve, Buddhist temples ring out the old year by letting passersby each ring a huge bell once until it has rung 108 times, one time for each kind of evil in the world. On New Year's Day, it is traditional to make a pilgrimmage to a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple. In the United States, the New Year's celebrations that are familiar to us today were originated in the 1750s by the Dutch in New Amsterdam. Today, we make New Year's resolutions.
Many people have big parties on New Year's Eve.
There are also special New Year's traditions in various parts of the country. In New York City, tens of thousands of celebrants crowd into Times Square to await the dropping of a large, lighted ball from the top of a skyscraper precisely at midnight on New Year's Eve. The occasion, shown on television, triggers celebrations all across the United States. On New Year's Day in Philadelphia, thousands of people dress in elaborate costumes and dance through the main streets in the daylong Mummers' Parade. In Pasadena, the Rose Bowl football game is preceded by the Tournament of Roses Parade-marching bands from all parts of the United States and hundreds of floats covered with fresh flowers make this a festive celebration.