WETUMPKA, Ala. (AP) — If there's an asteroid falling at the stroke of midnight, it must be New Year's Eve in the Alabama city of Wetumpka.

Residents are scheduled to start gathering at 9:30 p.m. Monday outside the old Elmore County Courthouse for an event designed to ring in 2013 in stellar style. Al.com reports (http://bit.ly/ZMPLBR) that at midnight the mock space rock will fall from a nearby hillside to the square in front of the courthouse, trailing flames and sparks.

Wetumpka officials say the asteroid fall is a tradition that has its origins more than 85 million years ago. That's when an asteroid struck and created Wetumpka's famous impact crater.