Every year on New Year’s Eve, an estimated million people come together at Times Square in New York City for the annual extravaganza that brings in the new year. Celebrities perform, fireworks explode and confetti rains on all the shivering souls packed in that brightly lit space. At that moment, most people probably wouldn’t be taking a close look at the brightly colored pieces of paper falling on them—but if they did, they’d probably find a small wish written on them.
That’s right—the confetti that rains down on people every New Year’s Eve contains wishes written by visitors to the Times Square Visitor Center, located between 46th and 47th Street on Seventh Avenue. One can see a sampling of these wishes on a section of the wall at the Visitor Center—entitled “Hopes and Dreams,” this small space is covered with brightly colored pieces of paper, each of which contains someone’s personal wish for themselves, for the ones they love or even for the whole of humanity.
Looking at these wishes is an enlightening experience in itself—the wishes that have been pinned to the wall encompass a wide variety of hopeful dreams. There were the magnanimous ones that wish for world peace and cures for cancer, and love featured prominently in many of the wishes on the wall. Some others were more personal and specific—there was someone who hoped to meet One Direction’s Zayn Malik, while another prayed for a prom date that he/she actually likes—the primary condition being that the date should NOT be “a random person.” To see more of such hopeful dreams, take a look at some of the wishes pinned on the Wishing Wall in the gallery below.
And hey–if you want your own wish to flutter out to Times Square on New Year’s Eve, head down to the Visitor Center today and write your own dream for the new year on a piece of confetti. The center is open all days of the week, from 8 am to 8 pm.
