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FROM SYDNEY TO Mumbai to Nairobi, communities around the world have welcomed 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges.
It offered a hopeful start to 2025 for some, even as the world’s ongoing conflicts raised security concerns and led to muted or even cancelled festivities.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean were the first to ring in the New Year with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball dropped in Times Square.
In New York, crowds cheered and couples kissed when the ball weighing almost six tonnes and featuring 2,688 crystal triangles descended down a pole in Times Square. The celebration included musical performances by TLC and the Jonas Brothers.
“It’s the biggest party in the world. There’s no other place to celebrate New Year’s than Times Square,” said Tommy Onolfo of Long Island.
Rio de Janeiro threw Brazil’s main New Year’s Eve bash on Copacabana beach, with barges shooting off 12 straight minutes of fireworks.
Thousands of tourists on cruise ships and charter boats witnessed the show up close, while many more streamed onto the sand to find their spot.
The crowd on Copacabana was expected to exceed two million people — most decked out in white to keep with tradition. They packed together to enjoy concerts by Brazilian music legends Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia and Ivete Sangalo, among others.
Right after the fireworks concluded, Brazil’s biggest pop star Anitta took to the stage.
Auckland was the first major city to celebrate, with thousands thronging downtown or climbing the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point.
Fireworks blasted off the Sydney Harbour Bridge and across the bay. More than a million Australians and others gathered at the iconic Sydney Harbor for the celebration. British pop star Robbie Williams led a singalong with the crowd.
The celebration also featured Indigenous ceremonies and performances that acknowledged the land’s first people.
Hong Kong marked the start of the new year with a dazzling fireworks display over Victoria Harbour.
The theme for the 12-minute light and musical extravaganza was “The Symphony of Happiness,” conveying wishes for prosperity in the new year.
In India, thousands of revellers in the financial hub of Mumbai flocked to the city’s 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 show at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper.
And in Nairobi, Kenya, scattered fireworks were heard.
Rome’s traditional New Year’s Eve festivities have an additional draw: the start of Pope Francis’ Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration projected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
During Mass on Wednesday, the Pope is expected to again appeal for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Paris capped a momentous 2024 with its traditional countdown and fireworks extravaganza on the Champs-Elysées. The city’s emblematic Arc de Triomphe monument was turned into a giant tableau for a light show that celebrated the city’s landmarks and the passage of time, with whirring clocks.
“Paris is a party,” proclaimed Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
The Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games hosted in the French capital from July to September transformed the city into a site of joy, fraternity and astonishing sporting achievements.
In Switzerland and some other places, people embraced the cold, stripping and plunging into the water in freezing temperatures.
American Samoa will be among the last to welcome 2025, a full 24 hours after New Zealand.
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