CELEBRATING A NEW YEAR
Fireworks light up the sky over the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge during a New Year’s celebration in Australia. More than a million people gathered around the harbor to watch the 12-minute exhibition to celebrate the start of 2018. Millions of people across the globe said goodbye to 2017 as they welcomed 2018. New Year’s celebrations kicked off in Samoa, Christmas Island and New Zealand — the countries where the clock first struck midnight.
From spectacular fireworks in Australia to a huge LED light show at the world’s tallest building in Dubai, here’s a look at how revelers around the world were ringing in 2018 on Sunday:
New York: New Yorkers, celebrity entertainers and tourists from around the world were packing into a frigid Times Square to mark the start of 2018 with a glittering crystal ball drop, a burst of more than a ton of confetti and midnight fireworks. It was only 14 degrees in the city by late afternoon — already making it one of the coldest celebrations on record. Security was at an all-time high after a year that saw several fatal attacks on large crowds, including one in Times Square last spring.
Las Vegas: Thousands of revelers were expected to ring in the new year in Las Vegas under the close eye of throngs of law enforcement officers and National Guard members assembled to keep them safe just three months after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Tourism officials expect about 330,000 people to come to the city for festivities that are anchored by a roughly eightminute fireworks display at the top of seven casino-hotels.
United Arab Emirates: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, has again served as the focal point of New Year’s Eve celebrations — though this year authorities decided against fireworks and chose a massive LED light show on the structure. That was in part due to safety in the city-state in the United Arab Emirates, which saw a massive skyscraper fire on New Year’s Eve in 2015.
Vatican: Bidding 2017 farewell, Pope Francis decried wars, injustices, social and environmental degradation and other manmade ills which he said spoiled the year. Francis presided at a New Year’s Eve prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica, a traditional occasion to say thanks in each year’s last hours. In his homily, the pope said God gave to us a “whole and sound” 2017, but “we humans in so many ways ruined and hurt it with works of death, with lies and injustices.” But, he added, “gratitude prevails” thanks to those “cooperating silently for the common good.”
Australia: Fireworks lit up the sky above Sydney Harbor, highlighting the city’s New Year’s celebrations. The fireworks display included a rainbow waterfall cascade of lights and color flowing off the harbor’s bridge to celebrate recently passed legislation legalizing gay marriage in Australia.
New Zealand: Tens of thousands of New Zealanders took to streets and beaches, becoming among the first in the world to usher in 2018. As the new year dawned in this Southern Hemisphere nation, fireworks boomed and crackled above city centers and harbors, and partygoers sang, hugged, danced and kissed. In Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, tens of thousands gathered around Sky Tower as five minutes of pyrotechnics exploded from the top of the structure.
Russia: As Russians counted down the last moments before 2018 ticks over into each of the country’s 11 time zones, President Vladimir Putin called on them to be considerate and conciliatory with each other in the new year. “Say the most cherished words to each other, forgive mistakes and resentment, admit love, warm up with care and attention,” Putin said in a televised message broadcast on Sunday just before midnight. “Let the trust and mutual understanding always accompany us,” he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies after his statement aired in Kamchatka, the easternmost time zone.
Japan: Many Japanese celebrated by praying for peace and good fortune at neighborhood Shinto shrines, and eating traditional New Year’s food such as noodles, shrimp and sweet black beans.