Pennsylvania Communities To Mark Arrival Of New Year In Unique Ways
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Times Square has the ball drop, and Philadelphia has fireworks, but across Pennsylvania, a few towns have their own unique ways of celebrating the arrival of the new year.
In Kennett Square, Chester County, "The Mushroom Capital of the World," it's the third annual mushroom drop. A steel-frame mushroom adorned with white lights will be lowered to herald the new year at Midnight on the Square events.
In nearby Lancaster, the Red Rose city marks the arrival of 2016 at midnight with the lowering of a colorfully-crafted rose-shaped by lights followed by fireworks at Binns Park.
Not to be outdone in the war of the roses, just to the south, the city of York, lowers its White Rose made from lights at midnight on Continental Square.
In Pennsylvania's capital city, Harrisburg, there is the dropping of a strawberry made from lights followed by fireworks on Market Square at midnight.
For families the Christmas City - Bethlehem - stages Peepfest at the Steel Stacks to mark the arrival of the New Year with the drop at 5:15 p.m. of a four-foot, 85-pound, internally lit, yellow chick, modeled after the marshmallow holiday treats produced by the Just Born factory in the town.
In Hershey, they'll raise - not lower - a large seven-foot high, nearly 300 pound aluminum-crafted replica of a Hershey kiss in the town square at Chocolate and Park Avenues at midnight.
However, in the southern York County town of Dillsburg, they plan to lower a large plastic Mr. Dill pickle into a barrel to ring in the arrival of 2016.
And, in the county seat of Lebanon County, the city of Lebanon drops a 12-foot, 250 pound bologna suspended from a crane onto Cumblerland Street at midnight. The meaty treat is being donated to three charities.
And finally, in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, the town will raise a mock-up of a bottle of Yuengling Lager beer on a flag pole on Garfield Square and lower it at midnight. The town is the home of the Yuengling Brewery, one of the oldest in the country.
