Silvester to welcome the New Year early again in Harmony
Harmony will once again get a head start on the New Year.
The borough’s annual Silvester celebration will see the ball drop on German time — which is about six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time — so people in Harmony on New Year’s Eve will welcome 2025 at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Kathy Luek, president and CEO of Historic Harmony, said this will be the borough’s 18th Silvester, an event named after a traditional German holiday.
“It's called Silvester because Saint Silvester, who was the pope, cured Emperor Constantine, and they called it Saint Silvester's Feast Day,” Luek said. “Harmony has a German heritage — the Harmony Society came straight from Germany to Western Pennsylvania.”
Luek said that although the Silvester began as a way for people to celebrate the New Year without having to stay up until midnight, it provides plenty of fun activities, entertainment and food for attendees. The night technically begins with the annual 5K, which is at 3:30 p.m. that day, and continues until 6 p.m., when the ball drops and a fireworks show commences.
Harmony Parks provides some activities for the night, Luek said, but Historic Harmony will have its two log houses open, the Harmonist rooms in the Wagner and its gift shop open throughout the evening. The organization will also be selling bratwurst and sauerkraut, and pork and sauerkraut sandwiches outside Stewart Hall.
The free event has become a tradition enjoyed by many people in and around Harmony.
“It's a pretty good event; people love the fireworks,” Luek said. “(The ball) is a lighted spherical frame. It's bound with lights and tinsel, it just looks good in the dark.”
