From Sydney to Vladivostok to Mumbai, communities around the world are starting to welcome 2025 with spectacular light displays, hugs and other ways to bid farewell to 2024.
In Auckland, the first major city to celebrate the holiday, thousands headed to the downtown area or climbed the city’s chain of volcanic peaks to watch the fireworks. A light show that recognizes indigenous people.
South Pacific countries were the first to call in 2025, with midnight hitting in New Zealand 18 hours before the ball dropped in New York City’s Times Square.
Conflict has eased with the arrival of the new year in places such as the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
Fireworks went off from the Sydney Harbor Bridge and across the bay. More than a million Australians and others gathered on Sydney’s iconic harbor to celebrate. British pop star Robbie Williams led a solo with the crowd.
The celebration also included indigenous ceremonies and performances.
Communities in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong were some of the first in the world to welcome the year 2025, and they did so in style with the help of music, lasers and fireworks.
Toronto is set for a 10-minute waterfront fireworks display and a series of pop-up displays. In previous years, about 250,000 people attended the waterfront parade.
Asia is preparing for the Year of the Snake
Most parts of Japan are on lockdown ahead of the country’s biggest holiday, with temples and homes undergoing a thorough cleaning.
In the Asian zodiac, the Year of the Snake 2025 is heralded as a year of rebirth, referring to the shedding of reptilian skin.
Stores in Japan, which observes the zodiac cycle from January 1, sell snake-themed products. Other places in Asia will celebrate the Year of the Snake later with the Lunar New Year.
In South Korea, celebrations during the national mourning period were scaled back or canceled following the crash of a Jeju Airlines plane on Sunday in Muan. 179 people were killed.
In Bangkok, shopping malls competed for crowds with live music performances and fireworks displays. A fireworks display in Jakarta in which 800 drones participated.
The West’s opponents exchange good intentions
Chinese state media covered an exchange of 2025 greetings between Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a reminder of the growing rapprochement between two leaders facing tensions with the West.
China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that Xi told Putin that their countries “will always move forward side by side.”
China has maintained strong relations and trade with Russia since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022, which has helped offset Western sanctions and attempts to isolate Putin.
In India, thousands of revelers in Mumbai, the financial center, flocked to the bustling promenade facing the Arabian Sea. In Sri Lanka, people gathered at Buddhist temples to light oil lamps and incense sticks and pray.
In Dubai, thousands attended a fireworks display at Burj Khalifa, the tallest skyscraper in the world. In Nairobi, scattered fireworks could be heard as midnight approached.
Conflicts cast a shadow over the Middle East
Celebrations were expected to be quiet in Israel and Gaza, where the war with Hamas has continued for the fifteenth month, with tens of thousands of people killed and dozens of hostages remaining in captivity.
Dubai welcomed the New Year with fireworks atop the iconic Burj Khalifa, while in Bangkok fireworks made of sticky rice lit up the sky in pastel and gold colours. In Damascus, people gathered at the Christmas market to celebrate the year 2025, some waving Syrian flags and recording the fireworks display on their phones.
Lebanon is suffering from a severe economic crisis, and many areas were severely damaged during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Syrians expressed hope and uncertainty about the coming year after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad as president.
A good year begins
Rome’s traditional New Year’s Eve celebrations had an additional attraction: the start of Pope Francis’ Holy Year, a celebration that takes place once every quarter century and is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
On Tuesday, Francis is scheduled to celebrate vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by Mass on Wednesday, where he is expected to once again call for peace amid the wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Hours before the New Year in Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on its population of 84 million to stick together despite crises, world wars, the country’s faltering economy and the deadly crisis. Christmas market attack That shocked the nation.
“We are a country of togetherness and we can draw strength from this — especially in difficult times like these,” Schultz said in his pre-recorded speech.
Paris ends the year by celebrating on the Champs-Élysées
Paris concluded the momentous year 2024 with a traditional countdown and spectacular fireworks on the Champs-Élysées. The city’s emblematic Arc de Triomphe monument has been transformed into a giant billboard for a light show celebrating the city’s landmarks and the passage of time with buzzing clocks.
The Summer Olympics and Paralympics, hosted in the French capital from July to September, transformed the city into a site of joy, brotherhood and amazing sporting achievements.
London welcomed the New Year with a fireworks display along the River Thames. But with a storm bringing bitter weather to other parts of the UK, celebrations in Edinburgh, Scotland, were cancelled.
2 million revelers
Rio de Janeiro was holding Brazil’s main party on New Year’s Eve on Copacabana Beach, where boats set off fireworks for 12 straight minutes. Thousands of tourists on cruise ships and charter boats were dropping anchor to watch the show up close, while many were streaming onto the sand to find their place. More than two million people, most dressed in white to preserve tradition, were expected to arrive at Copacabana
American traditions ancient and modern
And in New York City, the organization that runs Times Square experienced the famous ball drop and examined 2,025 numbers, lights and thousands of crystals, as part of a tradition dating back to 1907. Musical performances by TLC, the Jonas Brothers, Rita Ora and Sophie Ellis – and Pextor – were scheduled to celebrate this year.
The concert, which covered several blocks around the city’s tourist center and main theater, was expected to attract large crowds despite the rain and cold weather.
Las Vegas was scheduled to say goodbye in 2024 to its old traditions and some new ones. The annual eight-minute fireworks display will take place on the Las Vegas Strip, where 340,000 people are expected to attend with fireworks being shot off from the rooftops of nine casinos.
Nearby, the massive Sphere website was set to debut a countdown to midnight in different time zones.
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