A New Year’s countdown with a local twist
In Brasstown, a small community in western North Carolina, the midnight spectacle swaps the familiar descending ball for a local wild animal: an opossum. The slow lowering turns the final seconds of the year into a shared public countdown, but the choice of centerpiece gives the celebration a distinctly regional character rather than the polished, big-city feel of a televised ball drop.
The animal behind the name
Although people often call it a “possum,” the animal native to the United States is an opossum—a marsupial, meaning its young develop in a pouch. That makes the event’s name part of its charm: “possum” is the everyday shorthand many Americans use, while the animal itself is far removed from the familiar Australian possums that share the shorter name.
Opossums are usually associated with the nighttime outdoors, not a New Year’s stage. Putting one at the center of a countdown makes an ordinary local animal an unmistakable emblem of the occasion. At midnight, the year changes not with a glittering city landmark but with a creature most people might otherwise encounter only at the edge of a road or yard.
