A nearly empty Times Square rings in the new year
For the first time in living memory, the public was barred from the famous ball drop as the city closed a devastating year under the shadow of the pandemic.
Times Square rang in the new year this December under extraordinary circumstances, with the public barred from the celebration for the first time in living memory as New York closed out a devastating year defined by the pandemic.
The famous ball drop went ahead, broadcast to a global audience, but the Crossroads of the World, normally packed with hundreds of thousands of revellers crammed shoulder to shoulder, stood nearly empty behind barricades. A small number of invited essential workers and their families watched from socially distanced pens, standing in for the crowds who had gathered there for generations.
The eerie scene captured the toll of a year that had hit New York harder than almost anywhere, from the terrifying early weeks when the city was the epicentre of the outbreak to the long months of closures, loss and economic pain that followed.
Yet the decision to hold the ceremony at all, even without crowds, carried a note of defiance and hope. Organisers framed it as a message that the city endured, and that better days lay ahead as vaccines began to roll out.
For a city that prides itself on gathering in enormous numbers to mark the turning of the year, the empty square was a poignant symbol of all that had been lost. But the glittering ball still fell at midnight, a small, stubborn ritual of continuity at the close of an unforgettable year.