Why Do We Drop The Ball In Times Square For New Years?.....

[global1]

Seems to me we should be raising the ball for the New Year. Dropping the ball - to me - has a negative connotation. How did we come by the tradition of dropping the ball? or the shoe in Key West? or the potato in Boise, Idaho?, etc.

Wouldn't it make more sense raising things on New Years Eve. Kind of like raising your glasses when toasting an occasion.

Just curious - cause I never could quite understand - dropping the ball.

[democratisphere]

1. Tradition.

[global1]

3. What Is The Derivation To Such A Negative Connotation Tradition?....

Seems to me if the ball can be dropped - it wouldn't take much to reverse direction and raise the ball.

Doesn't raising make more sense?

Dropping the ball in sports is negative.

Dropping the ball in a business situation is negative.

Have you ever had a boss tell you that you 'dropped the ball'?

Negative, negative, negative!!!!

Time to change the tradition. Maybe we would have better luck in the New Year if we raised the ball.

[democratisphere]

6. As far as I'm concerned our nation has really screwed up and dropped the ball

by electing drumpf. The direction of the ball is appropriate for these times. Perhaps once drumpf is gone, we could launch rockets on New Year's Eve.

[SCantiGOP]

2. I take it

that you don’t have a lot of things to worry about today.

[global1]

4. It's A Day Off Of Work ....

a day to relax. I'm trying to keep negative thoughts of Trump out of my head today.

That's when I began pondering the ball drop.

[Phentex]

13. I wondered about it last night as we watched...

it seems kinda dumb for a tradition, in general. I like your idea better.

[dembotoz]

5. It's a good visual. Good on site and for tv

Think u are stuck with it

[global1]

9. Isn't It Better Visually To Raise The Ball...

and have fireworks and the New Year posted at the top?

[pangaia]

7. Gravity.

[jpak]

8. It's a nautical thing....

Time Balls were dropped from Time Towers in many ports to allow ship captains to set their chronometers.

Which were essential for longitude measurements.

They tell the time.

[hunter]

10. Thomas Edison, patent troll, stole it from England's Royal Observatory

Adolph Ochs, the publisher of The New York Times, got sucked in.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/new-years-eve-times-square-ball-drop-time-measurement-a8136111.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/from-edisons-light-bulb-to-the-ball-in-times-square-33743920/

[Donkees]

11. ''The first "time-ball" was installed atop England's Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833. ... ''

The actual notion of a ball "dropping" to signal the passage of time dates back long before New Year's Eve was ever celebrated in Times Square. The first "time-ball" was installed atop England's Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833. This ball would drop at one o'clock every afternoon, allowing the captains of nearby ships to precisely set their chronometers (a vital navigational instrument).

Around 150 public time-balls are believed to have been installed around the world after the success at Greenwich, though few survive and still work. The tradition is carried on today in places like the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, where a time-ball descends from a flagpole at noon each day - and of course, once a year in Times Square, where it marks the stroke of midnight not for a few ships' captains, but for over one billion people watching worldwide.

https://www.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-new-years-eve/nye-history-times-square-ball

[stevenleser]

12. In addition to responses #10 and #11 above, physics. Allowing a massive ball to drop is easier

less costly and has less of a chance of failure than to elevate it.

[global1]

14. Oh - We Can Put A Man On The Moon But...

we don't have the technology to raise a crystal ball.

[stevenleser]

19. Nope, I didn't say we can't, but what is the benefit to spending the additional money on this? nt

[Historic NY]

15. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

1 million people generate a lot of it.

[yuiyoshida]

16. In the NFL its called a Fumble!

[Blues Heron]

17. Think of it as a basketball

dropping cleanly through the hoop

[X_Digger]

18. Because not everybody gives a shit about sports metaphors? n/t

[left-of-center2012]

20. If this is your biggest concern ...

... you are a very lucky person.

[WillowTree]

21. It's the visual of the countdown to midnight. Not sure why that isn't obvious to more peeps.