Sunday, New York citizens, and tourists alike, were given an opportunity to publicly wave goodbye to their unwanted memories of 2014. The Times Square Alliance along with Shred-it International collaborated to provide a mobile shredding truck at Broadway Plaza, so participants could watch their bad memories, written on a piece of paper, be permanently destroyed.
The idea is based on a traditional Latin American custom where dolls are made from straw and stuffed with negative things and burnt in a bonfire, in order to purge evil spirits.
With Times Square being the center of so many vanities, the organizers deemed a bonfire to be out of the question. Though less of a spectacle, the process of shredding unpleasant recollections is cathartic nonetheless, and is more in-line with health and safety regulations.
