Honolulu Greets New Year With Noise, Fun, Fireworks

Every Sunday, "Back in the Day" looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.

Blaring horns, jangling whir of noisemakers and exploding firecrackers sounded a boisterous note of welcome to 1953 last night.

Shoutin’, rootin’ and tootin’ Honolulans filled with the spirit of revelry and good cheer, greeted the arrival of the New Year with a celebration equally intensive in extent and variety with celebrations of other years.

And the fact that for many it will be a shorter holiday than the Christmas celebration of a week ago made little difference to fun loving Honolulans. The New Year was here. And Islanders were determined to celebrate it to the fullest.

In observance of the holiday today, Honolulu banks and the Honolulu Stock Exchange and all Mainland exchanges will be closed. …

Besides the banks, virtually all stores will be closed today, according to the Honolulu Retail Board. …

While New Year’s Eve parties, balls, dances and merrymaking were going on in all parts of the City, many churches throughout Honolulu and Rural Oahu held watch night services. Some churches will hold services today.

In most of these services, our boys "over there" in Korea and other parts of the world were not forgotten. While the boys were fighting in the bitter cold with winds whistling down from Siberia, mothers, fathers and others prayed for the boys and for a speedy end of the Korean war.

Others prayed that the New Year will be one of peace, prosperity and happiness.

But for the majority of Honolulans, even the though of income tax returns (due in March) could not have lessened the vigor and enthusiasm with which they greeted the New Year. …

As the hours ticked away and midnight approached, the noise, shouting and clamor steadily mounted.

At the stroke of midnight, when Old Father Time shuffled out the back door and little, but lusty, 1953 burst in from the frot, pandemonium broke loose. Honolulans "cut loose" with any kind of noise maker available.

… Estimates of the number of those attending public or semi-public resorts ran into the thousands, most of the merry makers dancing and dining until the wee hours of the morning.