Good Riddance Day 2021 in Times Square

Say good riddance to bad memories of 2021 to make room for new and better memories in 2022

Shred it and forget it at the annual Good Riddance Day event in Times Square, Tuesday, Dec. 28, because we all want this year to be gone.

Some suggestions of what to shred and forget:

photos of broken romances,
turn-down letter from the co-op board,
furlough letter from your job,
list of the music you loathe,
notice you’re being sued for divorce or copyright infringement,
form letter from your bank or mobile phone provider announcing new monthly service fees,
old report cards with the failing grade in calculus or chemistry,
the wig you wore while you were in chemotherapy.

Normally, you could watch your memories go to Shred Heaven in an industrial-sized shredder in Times Square, to be turned into confetti that will rain down on New Year’s Eve revelers a few days later.

But this has not been a normal year, so this year Good Riddance Day is virtual.

Here’s how to participate in Good Riddance Day:

Add your bad memory to this online form

Use the hashtag #GoodRiddanceDay on Twitter and Instagram

You can also send a video of you writing it down and destroying the paper yourself, in whatever way you want.

Some good riddance thoughts will be broadcast in the official NYE webcast - which is live on Facebook this year, but without the usual crowds..

Good Riddance Day backstory

Good Riddance Day is inspired by a Latin American tradition in which New Year’s revelers stuffed dolls with objects representing bad memories before setting them on fire.

There’s a similar tradition in Judaism, on the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashonah, in which observant Jews put their sins into a container, such as a paper bag, and send it to disappear on a fast-moving river.

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Evelyn Kanter is a native New Yorker who has written for the NY Times, NY Daily News, NY Post, New York Magazine, and is a former on-air reporter for WCBS Newsradio 88 and WABC-TV Eyewitness News.