New Year’s Eve (or Hogmanay as it is known in Scotland) is the biggest, brightest and most exciting of the year’s celebrations. The most ritzy of the world’s celebrations is held in Times Square, New York with the dropping of the celebrated LED ball.
Compared to an estimated 250,000 revellers at the London Eye and a mere 80,000 in Edinburgh’s Princes Street, the Times Square New Year celebrations attracts a crowd in excess of a million! The highlight of the night is the lowering of the ball: a 12ft sphere which weighs 11,875 pounds and is lit by 32,256 LED light bulbs.
The Times Square Ball descends from a 77 foot high flag pole in the final minute of the old year, heralding the start of the New Year. The ball is made from 2,668 Waterford Crystals and using LED light bulbs, displays a spectrum of more than 16 million different colours.
Because LED light bulbs are so energy efficient, this massive ball of light only consumes the amount of electricity needed to fuel two domestic ovens for an hour.
The first ever Times Square Ball was constructed in 1907. The new LED-powered ball was created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the spectacle in 2007 and is a far cry from its predecessors in size, scale and energy-efficiency.
Every year, billions of people across the world watch the Times Square celebrations on television. If you’ve never witnessed this amazing LED display, you can see the Times Square ball on YouTube.
Whether you’re in Times Square or celebrating more modestly elsewhere, remember to put switching to LED lighting at the top of your New Year resolution list.
And finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.
Date: December 30, 2011
Tags: LED Lighting new travel
The most ritzy of the world’s celebrations is held in Times Square, New York with the dropping of the celebrated LED ball.