Pottsville has canceled the annual raising of a Yuengling beer bottle to ring in the new year, citing concerns about pandemic.
”In order to encourage a safe and responsible New Year’s Eve, the city will not hold the Yuengling bottle raising this year. We are encouraging everyone to ‘Stay Home, Stay Safe to Start 2021,’” reads a news release issued by the city administrator’s office Tuesday morning.
The city also did not have a public gathering for this year’s tree lighting in Garfield Square. The lighting of the 30-foot-tall Norway Spruce, however, was livestreamed on the Pottsville Recreation Commission’s Facebook page.
Raising of the 6-foot-tall bottle, supplied by the brewery on Mahantongo Street, has been a city tradition since 2003 when Pottsville was preparing to celebrate its bicentennial. The bottle is actually a mesh cage with a plastic covering resembling a Yuengling Traditional Lager.