By Emmie Brooks
Illustrations by Harry Blair
The countdowns are quirky, the crowds are proud, and the traditions are unmistakably eastern North Carolina. Who needs Times Square on New Year’s Eve when you can drop what you know best, from pickles to pigs, bears to berries, crabs to croakers?
Burgaw celebrates its blueberry heritage when a large, glowing blueberry drops into downtown as the jams, jellies, muffins, pancakes and pies of the old year make way for the new. “There are lots of towns that do drops, and our community wanted something similar,” says Jayna Augst, Town of Burgaw recreation supervisor. The annual tradition began eight years ago, adopting its theme from the long-running Burgaw Blueberry Festival and the area’s many blueberry farms. Festivities begin at 5 p.m., giving families time to enjoy food, music and dancing — Fremont Street and the downtown are closed to traffic to accommodate the crowds — all leading up to the Blueberry Drop at 7 p.m. It’s an opportunity for local nonprofits to raise funds, and organizations like the Burgaw Lions Club, the Rotary Club of Burgaw and the Parks Foundation to support new town projects.
“It helps solidify our identity. We’re here to support the town, what it came from and what it still is,” Augst says. “A lot of people are surprised how fun Burgaw can be.”
Morehead City’s Crab Pot Drop began in 2015 when a local business owner partnered with Downtown Morehead City Inc. and city leaders to create this uniquely coastal celebration. “Morehead City is known for its great fishing and water recreation, and the crab pot pays homage to that,” says Anna Smith, Morehead City public information officer.
The celebration has become a way for the town to highlight the Crystal Coast’s culture and charm, growing steadily since its inaugural launch, er, plunge. Held along the waterfront with charter fishing boats nearby, festivities include face painting, music and local food, all leading up to the drop. At 8:59 p.m., the crowd counts down as the crab pot descends. When it hits the ground at precisely 9 p.m., fireworks burst over Sugarloaf Island. Crowds typically exceed 1,000 with a mix of locals and tourists, many watching from nearby restaurants, bars and homes.
“Locals and visitors alike love coming to the Crystal Coast for great seafood, fishing and views,” Smith says. “This is a nod to that.”
In Mount Olive, New Year’s Eve isn’t about counting down to midnight — it’s about counting down a larger-than-life, glowing pickle. The Pickle Drop started in 1999 as a small, in-house celebration for the Mount Olive Pickle Company. “Just to mark Mount Olive as the official pickle and pepper of the millennium,” says Melissa Kilpatrick, Mount Olive Company Consumer and Community Relations supervisor.
By 2001, the public was invited to the celebration, and about 250 people gathered at the corner of Cucumber and Vine streets to watch a lighted pickle descend from a company truck ladder. The event quickly outgrew the plant parking lot. It now takes place at the University of Mount Olive in front of Kornegay Arena, where thousands gather for food trucks, live music and free pickles. Celebrations begin around 5 p.m., with the pickle dropping at 7 p.m. sharp, timed to midnight Greenwich Mean Time.
“It allows us to get home and spend time with our families,” Kilpatrick says. “If you make it until midnight, that’s great, but we’ve already celebrated here in Mount Olive.”
Visitors who donate canned goods or funds to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina are entered into door prize drawings — including the grand prize: a replica of the jumbo pickle.
“It’s just a fun and festive atmosphere,” Kilpatrick says. “Pickles tend to bring out the best in people.”
This year marks the kickoff for Mount Olive Pickle Company’s 100th anniversary, and organizers promise new and exciting additions. Downtown, guests can stop by the new Mount Olive Pickle Parlor (part gift shop, part museum), which will be open ahead of the event and stocked with special edition Pickle Drop merch.
“We are absolutely dill-lighted to be able to host this fun event, and we relish the opportunity to see everyone,” Kilpatrick says with a laugh. Now in its 25th year, the event remains a beloved eastern North Carolina tradition — one as tangy and proud as the pickle itself.
Meanwhile, they grin and bear it in New Bern by dropping their namesake and cultural symbol. The bear drop is a reflection of the town’s heritage, “bern” meaning “bear” in German, and the streets are dotted with more than 100 fiberglass bear sculptures for the occasion.
The city’s New Year’s Eve block party kicks off at 5 p.m. and runs until midnight, featuring live music, vendors, food trucks, street performers and games for the kiddos. The midnight Bear Drop features a grizzly-sized, transparent, glowing bear that descends from the top of New Bern City Hall to a lit pedestal, while a smaller bear cub drops from a crane to the ground at 9 p.m., giving kids a close-up, petting zoo experience.
“I think the bear theme is growing. We all think of the teddy bear we had when we were little, so that whole nostalgia of being a kid and identifying with a bear is really taking off,” says Colleen Roberts, City of New Bern public information officer and brand manager. “Events around the holidays have a Norman Rockwell feel. Candelabras light the downtown streets, trees and poles are wrapped in lights, and the festive atmosphere makes the city feel like a winter wonderland.”
On New Year’s Eve in Newport, a glowing pink pig descends to mark the occasion. The tradition began in 2017, when welding students at Carteret Community College built the metal pig as a class project. Newport’s Public Works Department finished the job, painting it pink and stringing it with lights.
“The pig ties directly to who we are, from our pig cooking contests to our community traditions,” Newport Mayor Dennis Barber says. The event pays tribute to the town’s long-running Newport Pig Cookin’ Contest, a barbecue festival that’s been drawing crowds for nearly 50 years.
The pig drops at 6 p.m. to keep things family-friendly and to honor an early quirk of timing — in the year of the inaugural pig drop, Mayor Barber’s daughter was in Paris on New Year’s Eve, where it was midnight at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
“Six o’clock means families, seniors and kids can all be there together,” Mayor Barber says. “And it’s midnight somewhere — in this case, Paris.”
In 2004 Oriental locals, drawing inspiration from New York’s Ball and Raleigh’s Acorn, decided their town would celebrate with a croaker — a fitting fish for their waterfront community. Knowing a real croaker likely wouldn’t appreciate the experience, volunteers crafted the initial 18-inch fish from plywood, modeled after the symbol used in the town’s long-running Croaker Festival. Progress (and fish) marches forward, however, and by 2008 the croaker had grown bigger, brighter and battery-powered with three dozen AA cells duct-taped to its back.
Oriental’s New Year’s Eve croaker drop is the finale of a larger celebration that includes the town’s dragon run, a 40-year-old tradition that features a massive dragon winding through the streets while drummers and revelers bang pots and pans to chase away “evil spirits.”
“It’s such a wonderful chance for the community to come together. It’s something really special for this little village,” says Marsha Paplham, Oriental Tourism Board chairman. The dragon run happens twice on New Year’s Eve. At 8 p.m., the dragon wanders down Hodges Street to the town dock and back, a quieter preview before the 11 p.m. full gallop. The drop closes out the evening at midnight, sending the dragon to its lair until the following December. “It’s a big ruckus affair,” Paplham says.
Between New Year’s celebrations, the dragon rests quietly in its nest, carefully tended by a group of local volunteers who call themselves the Dragon Protection Society. Its keepers make sure it stays in perfect condition all year, and the dragon is not to be disturbed except during the New Year’s festivities. For the villagers of Oriental, it’s a cherished guardian, in hibernation most of the year but full of energy when it comes time to welcome in a new one.
Fantastical, offbeat, fun and funny, eastern North Carolina’s New Year’s Eve is a patchwork of downright lovable traditions. Let the countdowns begin.