{"id":86331,"date":"2026-01-01T07:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/86331\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T07:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:30:09","slug":"new-york-city-welcomes-2026-with-iconic-times-square-ball-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/86331\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City welcomes 2026 with iconic Times Square ball drop"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City has rung in 2026 with its traditional ball drop in Times Square.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the Midtown Manhattan neighbourhood to watch the illuminated ball descend above the world-famous square at the stroke of midnight (0500 GMT), accompanied by music and confetti.<\/p>\n

Many of them had been there for hours, braving winter temperatures in the cordoned-off streets around Times Square, which took its name from the editorial offices of the New York Times newspaper, formerly housed in the adjacent building.<\/p>\n

The ball drop is broadcast live on television worldwide and has been a central symbol of New Year celebrations in the United States for more than a century.<\/p>\n

The newly redesigned crystal-studded ball, weighing several tons, took just under a minute for its 43-metre descent.<\/p>\n

The ball was redesigned to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which the US will celebrate in 2026.<\/p>\n

The ball now features lighting and control technology, allowing it to be illuminated in the colours of the national flag – red, white and blue – at the turn of the year.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People from all over the world gather for the 2026 Ball Drop at Times Square amid cold weather. Niyi Fote\/TheNEWS2 via ZUMA Press Wire\/dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City has rung in 2026 with its traditional ball drop in Times Square. Hundreds of thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3412,9,24,55,54,56,2027,41869],"class_list":["post-86331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-midtown-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-times-square","tag-zuma-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}