Horns, bells, whistles: How Delaware welcomed the new year with raucous street parties

“Thousands of horns and bells and whistles, and thousands more of voices burst into great chorus of sound as the clocks of Wilmington chimed at midnight,” the Wilmington Evening Journal reported on Jan. 1, 1913. “1912 was dead and the new year was born!” Celebrating the arrival of a new year dates back thousands of years to the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia. The festivities went through many permutations as the years rolled by. In the 19th century, some residents of Delaware marked the arrival of a new year by attending...