A Different Look to Time Square this New Year's Eve

For the past 114 years, New York City has made it their priority to ring in the New Year in a fun and exciting way. Each year there is live entertainment in Times Square by the biggest musical artists of that year. People from all over the world have come to celebrate New Year’s Eve in New York. For some people, it is on their bucket list to visit and be part of the annual celebration.

This year broke the streak for in-person celebrations and New Year’s Eve parties. Instead of having hundreds of thousands of citizens coming together shoulder-to-shoulder, “the night’s festivities will recognize those Americans getting us through the pandemic —  essential, frontline and emergency medical workers. Several of these workers will be the event’s official “Special Guests” says New York Times reporter Emily Palmer.

The essential, frontline and emergency medical workers were in blocked off sections with their families enjoying the show from there. Celebrities such as Pitbull posted on social media a picture of him performing in Times Square and captioned the photo, “Let’s ring in 2021 by honoring the first responders around the globe for their hard work”. He is one of many celebrities to be honoring essential workers and first responders since the beginning of the pandemic. 

The event was live-streamed across most TV networks. TJ Withman, a spokesman for The Times Square Alliance says, “the event will be staged for television and online audiences specifically, and public revelers will not be present in Times Square.” 

Citizens were instructed to stay at home and watch the ball drop from TV or any other network. The public was also encouraged to not celebrate with friends, but to just stay home and watch the celebration on television. A lot of people did stay home but others ignored what people had to say and went to parties anyway. 

New Year’s Eve this year was very different from what we are used to. It taught us how responsible we have to be for stuff like celebrating the New Year in New York to happen again. It also taught the world to never take anything for granted. Never in a million years would we think that we would have to spend holidays separated from extended family and friends. If that’s the price to pay to be able to socialize again, so be it.