World bids goodbye to 2025 with fireworks and icy plunges

AS WEDNESDAY (Dec 31) turned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging year and expressed hopes for 2026.

Midnight arrived first on the islands closest to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tonga and New Zealand.

One of the last centres to greet the New Year was New York, where revellers celebrated in sub-zero temperatures and those in Times Square watched the traditional ball drop at midnight.

Fireworks light up Sydney

In Australia, Sydney began 2026 with a spectacular fireworks display, as per tradition. Some 40,000 pyrotechnic effects stretched 7 km across buildings and barges in its harbour, and featured a waterfall effect from the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

This year, it was held under an enhanced police presence, weeks after gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish event in the city.

Organisers held a minute’s silence at 11 pm local time for the victims of the attack, with the Harbour Bridge lit up in white and a menorah – a symbol of Judaism – projected onto its pylons.

“After a tragic end to the year for our city, we hope that New Year’s Eve will provide an opportunity to come together and look with hope for a peaceful and happy 2026,” Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said ahead of the event.

In Seoul, thousands gathered at the Bosingak bell pavilion, where a bronze bell was struck 33 times at midnight – a tradition rooted in Buddhist cosmology, symbolising the 33 heavens.

The chimes are believed to dispel misfortune and welcome peace and prosperity for the year ahead.

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Drums at the Great Wall of China

An hour to the west, there were celebrations and a drum performance at the Juyong Pass, at the Great Wall of China just outside Beijing. Revellers wore headgear and waved boards emblazoned with “2026” and the symbol of a horse. February will mark the arrival of the Year of the Horse on the Chinese lunar calendar.

In Hong Kong, the annual New Year’s fireworks display was called off after the apartment complex blaze in November that killed 161 people.

Instead, a light show with the theme of “new hopes, new beginnings” transformed facades in the Central district.

In Croatia, celebrations got off to an early start. Since 2000, the town of Fuzine has held its countdown at noon – a tradition that has spread across the country.

Crowds cheered, toasted each other with champagne and danced to music, all in the middle of the day. Some brave souls in Santa hats took a plunge into the icy waters of Lake Bajer.

Brazil looks to break record

On Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, locals welcomed the New Year in warmer weather with a music and fireworks party known as “Reveillon”. Organisers were hoping to beat their 2024 Guinness World Record for the biggest New Year’s Eve celebration.

In New York’s Times Square, 2026 was welcomed with fireworks and confetti as Mayor Eric Adams pushed the crystal button to signal the descent of the New Year’s Eve ball.

Greece’s ancient Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis had a quiet New Year. Mayor of Athens Haris Doukas said silent, environmentally friendly fireworks were used, citing distress caused by loud displays to pets, animals and some people.

In snowy Kyiv and Moscow, both Ukrainians and Russians saw in the New Year, expressing hopes of peace after nearly four years of conflict.

“I wish for the war to end – I think that this is the main and most important topic for our country,” said a woman in central Moscow who gave her name only as Larisa. She said she had travelled from distant Altai Krai to see the Russian capital in the winter holidays with her family.

Many Ukrainians lamented that peace still seemed a distant prospect.

But wrapped up warm and visiting a Christmas tree set up in front of St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, nine-year-old Olesia was more optimistic.

“I think there will be peace in the New Year,” she said. REUTERS