Post date: Dec 27, 2012 8:33:1 PM
Workers put the finishing touches on the 2013 Times Square New Year's Eve ball, which is dedicated to late American television personality Dick Clark, who hosted the New York New Year's eve ceremony for 40 years.
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 27, 2012) (REUTERS) - The famous Times Square New Year's Eve Ball got a facelift for 2013 on Thursday (December 27), four days before the ball drop ceremony will ring in the new year.
Workers installed 288 new crystals onto the 6 feet (1.8 meter) sphere that represent this year's theme of "peace.'"So the ball has 2,668 Waterford crystals. And every year about 10 percent of them get replaced with a new theme," Tim Tompkins, president of Times Square Alliance and co-producer of the event told Reuters.
"This year's theme is 'let there be peace.' And so they've carved that and also they carved a dove onto the piece of crystal which is the symbol of peace."
One of the crystal triangles was engraved with the name of Dick Clark to pay homage to the longtime New Year's Eve telecast host.
His wife Kari Clark received the crystal triangle on behalf of her late husband.
"It's very special. Of course, it would be to him too. He was such a sentimental guy that things like that would really mean a lot to him," she said about the tribute.
Dick Clark died on April 18 earlier this year at the age of 82. He had hosted the annualTimes Square New Year's Eve broadcast for the past four decades until 2011.
When asked what she would do the first New Year's Eve without her husband, Kari said that she will be celebrating in Times Square.
"People said to me 'what are you going to do this year?' And it was, 'what I do every year.' I don't know anything else to do, to tell you the truth. I want to be here. And they are doing a special tribute to Dick from eight to ten, so I want to be here for that too," she said.
This year's broadcast will be hosted by American television and radio personality Allison Hagendorf.
The broadcast is expected to reach more than one billion people across the globe.