Before the Ball Drops, Some Said Good Riddance to '07

The idea was a cross between a voodoo ritual and what an ex does behind closed doors -- and it was all about excorsizing bad memories. Yesterday locals and tourists alike gathered in Times Square for what was dubbed Good Riddance Day. They hauled in medical bills, photographs and floppy disks (remember those?), all to be destroyed, shredded and wiped from their memory. The NY Times reports that "the alliance, a business group that works to promote and improve the neighborhood, rented a five-foot-tall, beige industrial shredder and installed it in the lobby of the Times Square Information Center on Seventh Avenue near West 47th Street."

One man from Brooklyn brought a red suitcase stuffed with so many papers that he jammed the shredder and was asked to leave so others could have a chance. One of which was a woman who brought her Blackberry, Palm Pilot and cell phone hoping it would bring her "peace and quiet" -- but we're betting she just got an iPhone for Christmas. Spontaneous participants scrawled their fears and doubts onto pieces of scrap paper and tossed them in.

When the alliance posted about their event, they invited everyone to “join us in mashing a year’s worth of bad hairstyles, loathed music, fashion disasters and ill-fated romances into an unrecognizable pulp of bad karma and negative vibes — which will then be carted off, never to be seen again. Because sometimes, you just need to let go.” And those who couldn't get away to erase the memories themselves, emailed them in!

Photo via the Daily News, who have a gallery of Good Riddance images.