Fireworks usher in newyear
New York – sea of horn- tooting, hat- wearing revellers cheered and some even kissed as the famed crystal ball dropped in a freezing New York City’s Times Square to ring in 2014, capping a worldwide wave of celebrations that included a dazzling 30- minute fireworks show in Dubai and a deluge of confetti in London that tasted as good as it looked.
Bronx- born US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor led the 60- second countdown and pushed the button that unleashed the shimmering orb with 2688 crystals, a role usually filled by the New York City mayor. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on his last day in office, was sitting the celebration out after 12 years on the job, while newly elected Mayor Bill de Blasio took the oath of office just after midnight at his Brooklyn home.
Kerrie McConaghy, 20, a university student visiting Times Square from Armagh, Ireland, was dancing and jumping up and down, donning a big blue top hat.
‘‘ It’s unbelievable here,’’ she said. ‘‘ The lights, seeing the ball, hearing the music, all the people. It’s amazing. TV doesn’t do this justice,’’ she said. ‘‘ You have to be here to believe it.’’
On the other side of the Atlantic, London welcomed 2014 with a mixture of futuristic fireworks and torch- lit tradition.
The city’s mayor, Boris Johnson, said this year’s explosive display
Acame packed with peach- flavoured snow, edible banana confetti and orange- scented bubbles.
In Russia, where two suicide bombings in two days killed 34 people, eerily empty buses lumbered through the streets of Volgograd, where authorities cancelled mass events for New Year’s Eve and asked residents not to set off fireworks.
In Dubai, a Persian Gulf city known for glitz, glamour and overthe- top achievements like the world’s tallest skyscraper, officials sought to break another record by creating the largest fireworks show.
The Dubai skyline was a canvas for a dazzling 30- minute show. The display capped off with six minutes of fireworks that engulfed the city’s man- made, palm- shaped island, with its fronds and trunk shimmering in thousands of lights.
Organisers had promised that the fireworks would form a flying falcon, a sunrise and the United Arab Emirates flag.
In Ukraine, anti- government protesters hoped to set their own record for the most people to sing a national anthem at the same time. On Kiev’s main square, at least 100,000 Ukrainians sang their national anthem in a sign of support for integration with Europe.
More than 260 people were injured by firecracker blasts and celebratory gunfire in the Philippines, a nation marking the end of a year of disasters, including a November 8 typhoon that left more than 6100 dead and nearly 1800 missing.
In Sydney there was a fireworks display that sprayed from the sails of the Sydney Opera House and the city’s Harbour Bridge.
‘‘ It filled up the whole sky,’’ said Mona Rucek, a 28- year- old tourist from Munich, Germany.
In Tokyo, five priests at the Zojoji temple used ropes to swing a wooden pole against a large bell, sounding the first of 108 gongs to mark the new year. Simultaneously, ‘‘ 2014’’ lit up in white lights on the modern Tokyo Tower in the background.
China had light shows at part of the Great Wall near Beijing and at the Bund waterfront in Shanghai.
The city of Wuhan in central Hubei province called off its fireworks show and banned fireworks downtown to avoid worsening its smog.
Pope Francis used his year- end prayer service of thanksgiving to urge people to ask themselves: Did they spend 2013 to further their own interests or to help others?