Ring in the new year

Break out the noisemakers and champagne. Father Time is nearly ready for his big curtain call as 2004 gets ready to become yesterday’s news. Whether you stay at home and watch the countdown on TV or are part of the crowd waiting in the cold air for midnight, the anticipation of the new year bubbles up all around.

Locally, The Stardust Ballroom Dance Club of Fayette County will hold its New Year’s Eve Couples Dance from 9 - 12:30 a.m. at Christ’s Church at Whitewater in Fayetteville. Music will be pre-recorded ballroom dance music including rock-n-roll, foxtrot, swing, waltz, rumba, cha-cha, tango, and more. Dressy attire is suggested. Visitor couples are welcome to attend. Tickets are $15 per couple. The church is located five miles south of the Fayette County Courthouse on Ga. Highway 85 next to Whitewater Middle School. For more information on the phone 770-460-7903 or 770-461-2369.

The Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center is also hosting a celebration starting at 7 p.m. with a cocktail reception. There will be live music by 2nd time around, along with an open bar and midnight toast. The charge is $200 per couple. For reservations, call 770-486-3221.

The Palmer Course at Starr’s Mill is also staging a party featuring the Boogie Shoes Band featuring Harold Seay, who was formerly with KC and the Sunshine Band. Cost is $50 per person. For reservations, call 770-460-0877.

At the Hilton Atlanta Airport the Andiamo Restaurant will offer a New Year’s Eve Dinner and Dancing from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. The evening begins with a reception in Andiamo followed by a five-course dinner.

MicTone disc jockeys will provide music and entertainment. At the stroke of midnight, there will be a cascading balloon drop and champagne toast for guests. The dinner-dance package is $79 per person plus gratuity and tax. An overnight package including the dinner-dance, hotel accommodations, champagne in the room and full breakfast buffet in the Magnolia Grill is $258 per couple plus gratuity and tax. Shuttle service to and from the airport is also included. For reservations call 404-559-6880.

The Southeast’s largest New Year’s Eve celebration in Atlanta, Georgia will feature one of the hottest platinum-selling touring acts in the nation, Sister Hazel, to ring-in 2005 with an 800-pound peach. The festivities, beginning at noon on New Year’s Eve, will continue throughout the day, with Sister Hazel taking the stage at 11:30 p.m. at the historic downtown Underground Atlanta. Tickets for the show are free, and if you can’t make it down to the festivities, The Peach Drop and performances by Sister Hazel, will be broadcast live on WXIA in Atlanta and 30 surrounding networks in the southeast region. Supported by their extremely expansive and loyal fan-base known as “Hazelnuts,” Sister Hazel is set to say good-bye to 2004 and hello to a busy 2005 tour schedule. For additional information, please visit www.sisterhazel.com, or www.peachdrop.com.

New Year's Eve celebrations can be traced back to an ancient Roman observance around the time of the Winter Solstice in December called "Saturnalia." This pagan holiday was known for totally letting go all discipline and rules for behavior and was known to get out of hand - just like some New Year's Eve celebrations today. It is celebrated in countries that use the Gregorian calendar with the United States, Australia, British Isles, North & South America, Europe, Scandinavia and (the former) Soviet Union as the main regions in the world who welcome in a new year.

There are others today who attend midnight masses at their church or synagogue, or get together in large crowds such as New York City's Time Square to watch the "ball drop." In London crowds gather in Trafalgar Square to count down the closing of the old year and welcome in the new.

But don’t worry, if you fall asleep and miss it all, there will be another one next year.