Many objects are dropped throughout the country to ring in the New Year. One of the most famous is the ball that is dropped in New York City. This is a link to a story map showing 50 different objects that are dropped on New Years.

http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=69b45c279da04aa4a3296b12deb5b24d

Picture Credits: By Times_Square_Ball_2010.jpg: Susan Serra, CKD from Long Island, USA derivative work: Sealle [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons