Why all the excitement over New Years Day?

New Years Day seems to be a useless holiday to me. Especially when stores close at 5pm tonight just cuz it's the night before the start of a new year. What's the point? Why not stay open regular hours? These stores close long before midnight regularly anyway. Halloween is more significant than New Years. I don't see any stores changing hours for Halloween. Then you have the day itself (Jan 1st). It's like the most boring day of the year! A lot of stores are closed, it's winter so it's cold and snowy, and there's nothing on TV except football, football, football!