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First Night: A Novel New Year Celebration
| Article
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15859 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1989 |
1,384 Words |
| Author
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Elaine Brooks
Elaine Brooks is a Boston-based writer and publicist with a
background in theater and communications. She has worked as
an actress, producer, lecturer, instructor, and tutor, and has
taught makeup application, skin care, and fashion styling, as
well as speech, at a nationally known modelling school. |
At midafternoon on December 31, the chill December wind nips at the noses of people waiting along the Boylston Street thoroughfare, from the Prudential Tower, past the elegant buildings of Copley Square, to the bare sculptural trees of Boston Common.
Shadows deepen along Back Bay avenues and up Beacon Hill. Soon it will be dark, but on this night, revelers' celebrations will light the city. It is First Night!
Families three and four generations strong have come to Boston to take part in the celebration. Young and old form parties in the squares, intersections, and parks. Couples, walking arm in arm, join the throng in a citywide celebration of the arts to see out the old year and cheer in the new.
They've come from Boston's neighborhoods and suburbs, every New England state, most of the other states, and many foreign countries. By midnight, close to a half-million will have joined the New Year's countdown. And at the close of this holiday night there won't be an empty hotel room in the city.
People gather along curbs waiting for the beginning of the lavish First Night parade of mimes, dancers, and fantastic puppet giants. Many among the crowd are costumed, masked, or dressed up for the party, and carry balloons or blow horns. Most wear bright campaign-style buttons and big smiles. The buttons, which they've bought in advance for five dollars, will admit them to performances and concerts throughout the city. No one seems drunk, disorderly, or lonely, and everyone feels justifiably safe. First Night has begun!
This year, Boston's First Night is enjoying its thirteenth celebration; it has a budget of nearly five hundred thousand dollars and expects a half-million participants. The custom has also been adopted by twenty-one other cities in the United States and Canada, five of which are holding their First Night celebrations this New Year's Eve.
Albany, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Springfield, Illinois; Providence, Rhode Island; York, Pennsylvania; and Vancouver, British Columbia, are among those cities that have already established First Night traditions. This year, Athens, Georgia; Edmonton, Alberta; Montclair, New Jersey; Newburyport, Massachusetts; and Denver, Colorado, are joining their ranks, with the help of the original First Night organization. Danbury, Hartford, and New Haven,
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