New Year’s Eve celebrations will still be on in Times Square, but with smaller crowds

NEW YORK — Revelers(狂欢者)will still ring in the new year in New York’s Times Square next week, there just won’t be as many of them as usual under new restrictions announced Thursday as the city struggles with a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Viewing areas that normally accommodate about 58,000 people will be    1    about 15,000 to allow for more distancing, and everyone in attendance must show proof of vaccination(接种疫苗)and wear a mask, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news release    2    the changes.

“There is a lot to celebrate and these additional safety measures will keep the fully vaccinated crowd safe and healthy as we ring in the New Year,” de Blasio said, noting the city’s success in getting residents vaccinated while also keeping businesses open.

The added precautions for New Year’s Eve in Times Square were spurred by the rapid spread of the omicron variant in the Big Apple, where lines for testing have snaked around blocks in recent days.

On Wednesday, the city set yet another one-day testing record with 22,808 new cases, though a true comparison to the number of cases during the initial COVID-19 surge in spring 2020 is impossible because tests were very limited at the time.

Because of vaccinations, hospitalizations and deaths from the current surge are far fewer than at the pandemic’s height.

The new wave of cases has    3    to the cancellation of concerts, sporting events and Broadway shows, but de Blasio has shown a strong preference for having the annual Times Square ball drop go on as    4    — the last major event of his eight-year tenure(任期), which ends Jan.1.

Little more than a month ago, de Blasio gladly announced that a fully vaccinated crowd of hundreds of thousands of people would be back at the iconic celebration — dressing goofy 2022-themed glasses and watching a crystal-clad ball drop at midnight — after it was limited last year to small groups of essential workers.

But that was before omicron caught fire,     5    city officials and event organizers to rethink just how many people they wanted to squeeze into the bright, billboard-lined tourist haven known to some as the Crossroads of the World.

On Tuesday, the Fox network gave its decision, pulling the plug on a planned live broadcast from the New Year’s Eve event.Other networks plan to air the festivities, including Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on ABC, the loyal program now hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

De Blasio said along with Thursday’s announcement that the city is    6    the COVID-19 situation and could impose additional precautions if needed.Among the other changes announced Thursday, revelers won’t be allowed into viewing areas until 3 p.m., much later than in past years.

On New Year’s Eve last year, Times Square was mostly empty, with Jennifer Lopez and other artists     7    behind police walls. After vaccines became widely available in the U.S., the city allowed crowds back to the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and other events.

“New York is the best place in the world to celebrate New Year’s Eve and now it will be one of the safest against COVID as well,” Mayor-elect Eric Adams said in a written statement supporting the new precautions.

“New Yorkers and visitors alike can now enjoy Times Square and the rest of our city as we ring in 2022.”

A birthday is a time when someone celebrates the anniversary of his/her birth. It is the expression of thanking God for your birth and still keeping alive. Birthdays     1     (celebrate)often with parties and gifts and in most parts of the world, it is celebrated in the same ways. But in China, it is completely     2     different and interesting thing.

In Chinese culture, newborn babies are considered to be one year old. A Chinese child’s first birthday party takes place    3     he or she turns two. Parents may surround a child with symbolic items in an attempt     4     (predict) the future.     5     a baby reaches for money, he is believed to be rich as an adult. And a child who grabs a toy airplane may often travel when he/she grows up.

More and more Western-style birthday cakes     6     (make) their way into Chinese birthday celebrations, but the birthday girl or boy traditionally slurps(出声地吃) longevity noodles, which symbolize a long life. An unbroken longevity noodle should fill an entire bowl and    7     (eat) in one continuous line. Family members and close friends    8     cannot attend the party often eat long noodles in honor of the birthday     9     (bring) longevity to the person celebrating. A birthday banquet     10     also include hard-boiled eggs dyed(染色)red to symbolize happiness and dumplings for good fortune.

5 . These summer festivals in New Orleans are few of the hottest happenings the City has to offer for holiday seekers.

Oyster Festival

There’s an old saying that it’s only safe to eat oysters in months ending in ‘R’, which was good advice in the age before refrigeration became a fashion. And that’s exactly why originally the New Orleans Oyster Festival was held in June, to break up the myth as locals never bothered to preserve the creatures with their habit of directly eating the seafood, fresh from the sea. Today, featuring oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico, Oyster Fest is a celebration of the world’s favorite food. If you’ve ever wanted to enjoy the legendary oysters at Drago’s where the recipe originated or take a bite out of an oyster the size of a hamburger. Oyster Fest is for you.

When to Co: June 3-4

Essence Festival

New Orleans holds a special place in African-American life and history so it should be no surprise the city hosts a festival celebrating African-American music and culture in the United States. With free admission, Essence Festival, organized by the African-American women’s magazine of the same name, is a combination of tour days of dynamic speeches and a showcase of African-American artists.

When to Co: June 29-July 2

Cajun-Zydeco Festival

Southern Louisiana is home to a variety of rich, unique cultures, and on a weekend in June in New Orleans, one of them— Cajun— is on lull display. The heart of Cajun country is in south-central Louisiana, a strong showcase of Cajun culture, for which the Cajun-Zydeco Festival emerged. On the particular weekend, you get ready to chew down on traditional food like Cajun gumbo at eateries, buy Cajun crafts, and purchase a Cajun T-shirt.

When to Co: June 24-25

Running of the Bulls

Due to its history, the Spanish influence still shows itself in New Orleans. The architectural style of the French Quarter is actually from Spain, and New Orleans’s annual Running of the Bulls is, in part, a nod to the city’s Spanish heritage. Unlike the Spanish festival in Pamplona, the “bulls” in the Fest are not actual bulls but the women of the Big Roller derby team. However they do chase down white-and=red-clothed festival-goers, if infuriated. Therefore behave yourself or be prepared to run tor life.

When to Co: JuIy7-9

What Sociology Can Teach UsAbout Thanksgiving

Sociologists （社会学家） believe that the celebrations practiced within any given culture serve to restate that culture’s most important values and beliefs. This theory dates back to founding sociologist Émile Durkheim and has been proved true by     1     researchers over more than a century’s time. According to sociologists, by examining a celebration, we can come to understand some     2     things about the culture in which it is practiced. In this spirit, let’s take a look at what Thanksgiving reveals about us.

It may not be much of a（n）     3     that coming together to share a meal with loved ones indicates how important relationships with friends and family are in our culture, which is far from a（n）     4     American thing. When we gather together to share in this holiday, we effectively say, “Your     5     and our relationship is important to me,” and in doing so, that relationship is restated and     6    . But there are some less obvious and more interesting things going on too.

In most households across the U. S. women and girls do the work of preparing, serving, and cleaning up after the Thanksgiving meal.     7    , most men and boys are likely to be watching and/or playing football. Of course, neither of these activities are exclusively gendered, but they are generally so. This means that Thanksgiving serves to     8     the distinct roles we believe men and women should play in society, and even what it means to be a man or a woman in our society today.

One of the most interesting sociological research findings is that overeating     9     with Thanksgiving illustrates American materialism and abundance. Sociologists found that the celebrations and how we talk about these experiences     10     that Thanksgiving is really about celebrating “material abundance” — having a lot of stuff, especially food, available for use.