New Year's Eve celebrations are as old as the holiday itself, and it's hard to believe that we're so deep into the 21st century already.
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Eve in many countries, the last day of the year, is on December 31. In many countries, New Year’s Eve is celebrated at evening social gatherings, where many people dance, eat, drink alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the new year. Some people attend a watch night service. The celebrations generally go on past midnight into January 1 (New Year’s Day).
Here, we collected some fun and interesting images from New Year's Eve celebrations past. See how the famous, as well as the rest of us, have celebrated the day in decades past.
Scroll down, and take a look at yesteryear. Wishing you all a very happy New Year!
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| A couple ring in the New Year with party blowers and streamers, circa 1930. (FPG, Getty Images) |
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| A barman on duty at the cocktail bar of Hector's Devonshire Restaurant in London on New Years Eve is seen preparing a cocktail. Shaken not stirred, 1930. (Sasha, Getty Images) |
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| Revelers at the Piccadilly Restaurant, London, celebrating the New Year, 1931. (Sasha, Getty Images) |
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| New Year's Eve revelers at the Piccadilly Hotel in London. December 31, 1931. (Sasha, Getty Images) |
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| American actress Clara Bow holds up a large card while actor Larry Gray inscribes a New Year's greeting with a giant pen, 1935. (General Photographic Agency, Getty Images) |
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| Members of the Kensington Studios having a tea break as they prepare their costumes for the Chelsea Arts Ball, 1935. (Reg Speller, Getty Images) |
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| A group of people in formal attire celebrate on New Years Eve at the El Morocco night club in New York City, circa 1935. (Hulton Archive, Getty Images) |
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| Seasonal greetings from the original Hollywood sex symbol, Mae West, 1936. (John Kobal Foundation, Getty Images) |
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| A group of friends sitting on a car roof in London while celebrating the arrival of 1936. (H. Allen, Getty Images) |
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| New Year's Eve Party In France, 1937. (KEYSTONE, 100% Keystone) |
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| A baby in his buggy is holding a new year's eve poster with a good advice for the new year, 1937. (Imagno, Getty Images) |
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| American jazz musician and bandleader Benny Goodman and his orchestra play for an enthusiastic audience during a New Year's Eve dance at the Waldorf Astoria, New York City, 1938. (Charles Peterson, Getty Images) |
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| Entertainment by dancer Margarita Buencore at Webster Hall New Year's Party, 1938. (Peter Stackpole, The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) |
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| Revelers recovering from New Years Eve celebrations on the steps of Grand Central Station, New York, circa 1940. (FPG, Getty Images) |
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| Employees of the Diamond Horseshoe cleaning up after a New Years Eve party in 1940 in New York. (KEYSTONE FRANCE, Gamma-Keystone Via Getty Images) |
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| New Years Eve in France, 1940. (KEYSTONE FRANCE, Gamma-Keystone Via Getty Images) |
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| Image 2/35 Partiers in New York City on New Year's Eve, as 1941 turns to 1942. (Gordon Coster, The LIFE Premium Collection/Getty Images) |
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| Soldiers and civilians celebrating the New Year in a nightclub, 1942. (Time Life Pictures, Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) |
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| A three-year-old boy accompanies his parents to a New York nightclub to celebrate New Year's Eve. At five in the morning, he is still welcoming in the New Year with a bottle of milk, 1943. (Weegee(Arthur Fellig)/Internatio, Getty Images) |
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| British actress Ida Lupino smiling at a friendly sailor as she cuts a cake which reads Happy Victory Year, 1944. (John Kobal Foundation, Getty Images) |
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| Olga San Juan posing for publicity still with nautical theme bearing message, 1944. (Time Life Pictures, The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) |
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| A studio portrait of two New Year's Eve revelers, 1945. (Hirz, Getty Images) |
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| Part of the New Years entertainment from Times Square, 1946. (NBC, NBC Via Getty Images) |
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| A cameraman records the New Years Celebration in Times Square, 1946. (NBC, NBC Via Getty Images) |
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| New Years Eve revels at in London, 1948. (The Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax Media Via Getty Images) |
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| Actor Marie Wilson, wearing evening clothes and a party hat, and surrounded by streamers and balloons, celebrates New Year's eve, 1948. (Hulton Archive, Getty Images) |
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| Dancers on New Year's Eve celebrations at the Trocadero Restaurant, Leicester Square, London, 1949. (Heritage Images, Heritage Images/Getty Images) |
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| Nina Foch and dress designer Jean Louis sipping champagne at Samuel Spiegle's New Year's Eve party, 1949. (Peter Stackpole, The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) |
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| New Year's Eve celebration, 1957. (Stan Wayman, The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) |
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| (L-R) Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi, his fiancee Caprice Chantal, British actor Anthony Steel and his wife, Swedish actress Anita Ekberg, during a diner in Saint Vincent Casino, Piedmont, on December 31, 1958. (AFP, AFP/Getty Images) |
