New Year's glasses are

novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...

eyeglasses Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear, with lenses (clear or tinted) mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms (known as temples or ...

in the numerical shape of the coming year usually worn during

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

parties. They were invented and

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

ed by Richard Sclafani and Peter Cicero in 1992, although other companies have produced similar versions. New Year's glasses' inspiration and popularity arose from the fact that the two digits in the middle of the year number (9 and 0 from the years 1990–2009) had holes suitable for looking through or mounting lenses into.

References

American inventions Glasses 1990s fashion 2000s fashion Party equipment 1990 introductions {{Festival-stub