A 10-minute firework show was set to kick off at midnight, with 500,000 people expected to gather on Champs-Elysees avenue to watch. Paris was set to stage its first New Year’s fireworks since 2019. Malaysia’s government cancelled its New Year countdown and fireworks event at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur after flooding across the nation displaced tens of thousands of people and a landslide killed 31 people this month.Ĭelebrations at the country’s famous Petronas Twin Towers were pared down with no performances or fireworks.Įarlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin devoted his annual New Year’s address to rallying the Russian people behind his troops fighting in Ukraine. The event was cancelled in 2019 due to often violent social unrest and was scaled down in 20 due to the pandemic. It was the city’s biggest New Year’s Eve celebration in several years. Lights beamed from some of the city’s biggest harbour-front buildings. “We’ve already had COVID, so now feel it’s safe to enjoy ourselves.”ĭays after Hong Kong lifted limits on group gatherings, tens of thousands of people gathered near the city’s Victoria Harbour for a countdown. “We’ve all travelled in from Chengdu to celebrate in Shanghai,” said Da Dai, a 28-year-old digital media executive who was travelling with two friends. In Shanghai, many thronged the historic riverside walkway, the Bund. In the city of Wuhan, where the pandemic began three years ago, tens of thousands of people gathered to celebrate amid a heavy security presence.īarricades were erected and hundreds of police officers and other security workers stood guard on the night of the first large-scale spontaneous gathering in the city since nationwide protests in late November – soon after which Chinese authorities all but abandoned the zero-COVID policy. In China, rigorous COVID restrictions were lifted only this month in the government’s reversal of its “zero-COVID” policy, a switch that has led to soaring infections and meant some people were in no mood to celebrate. The display in Sydney featured thousands of fireworks launched from the four sails of the Sydney Opera House and from the Harbour Bridge. However, curbs on celebrations were lifted this year after Australia, like many countries around the world, re-opened its borders and removed social distancing restrictions. Lockdowns at the end of 2020 and a surge in Omicron cases at the end of 2021 led to crowd restrictions and reduced festivities in Australia. “This New Year’s Eve, we are saying Sydney is back as we kick off festivities around the world and bring in the New Year with a bang,” said Clover Moore, lord mayor of the city, ahead of the events. Sydney, one of the world’s first major cities to welcome in the New Year, did so with a typically dazzling fireworks display, which for the first time featured a rainbow waterfall off the famous Harbour Bridge. Revellers celebrated across Asia from China to the Philippines to Thailand. Kids, with (mini) firecrackers in one hand and a lighter in another, cheerfully celebrate by throwing the small explosives one-by-one on the street whilst plugging their ears.Australia celebrated its first restriction-free New Year’s Eve after two years of COVID disruptions, as the world began bidding farewell to a year marked for many by the war in Ukraine, economic stresses and the effects of global warming. It's believed that the louder the firecrackers, the better and luckier it will be for business and farming in the coming year. See Why Chinese New Year Must Have Firecrackers. In many rural areas, it's customary to set off firecrackers before dinner, each day from New Year's Eve to day 3 of CNY. The moment Lunar New Year arrives there is a cacophony of fireworks and firecrackers all around, even in rural China. 10, 2024)Ĭhinese people believe that what they do on the first day of the lunar year will affect their luck during that year. In the past, Chinese people used to stay up all night, but now most stay up only until midnight firecrackers and fireworks die down. This custom is called shousui (守岁/show-sway/'to keep watch over the year').
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