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The fireworks in Sydney were broadcast live
© APA (AFP)
The year 2021 has already started in many countries around the world. As usual, Sydney in Australia kicked off the new year with colorful fireworks in front of the opera. This time no spectators were allowed due to the corona pandemic. European countries, including Austria, were quite cautious about the year’s sweep. Parties and fireworks, including classic festivities in Amsterdam, London, New York and Rio de Janeiro, were canceled.
In Germany, for example, there is a tough closure with shops, restaurants and bars closed, while in Italy and France tougher measures with night-out bans also prevailed. In the Russian capital Moscow, the traditional fireworks show took place near the Kremlin at midnight. Otherwise, New Year’s Eve in Europe’s largest city was marked by Corona restrictions: bars and restaurants had been closed since 11 p.m., as had the ice rinks. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin had urged Muscovites to celebrate the popular New Year’s festival with close relatives this year.
The gigantic empire has eleven time zones; In the far east of the country, the first Russians had already received the New Year nine hours before Moscow. In his New Year’s speech, President Vladimir Putin described 2020 as a difficult year for everyone: “It seems that the year that is coming to an end has taken on the burden of several years.” The pandemic will continue to be shaped by the pandemic in 2021, the Kremlin chief said: “The fight with it (the epidemic) does not stop for a minute.”
Because the corona pandemic is under control in China and there are hardly any infections, the New Year began in the People’s Republic without major restrictions. However, New Year’s Eve is also not a particularly important holiday for the Chinese. According to your traditional lunar calendar, the new year doesn’t start until February.
After Samoans were the first to celebrate the New Year at 11:00 AM CET, fireworks went off in New Zealand an hour later at 12:00 PM CET. Unlike many other countries, the island nation in the South Pacific has not registered any local corona cases for more than a month. Therefore, music festivals and fireworks shows were held with no limits on the number of visitors or other restrictions.
No spectators were allowed to view the fireworks at 2pm CET at Sydney Harbor and the Australian Opera. Sydney was like a ghost town, watchers reported. The world famous fireworks lasted only seven minutes instead of twelve like the previous year.
In the following hours, the countries of Asia gradually followed: at 4 pm Japan and South Korea were on their way. In the South Korean capital Seoul, for the first time in nearly seven decades, the traditional bell-ringing ceremony at the Bosin Pavilion (Bosingak) could only be seen on television and on social media. The turn of the year followed at 5 p.m. in the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as in Taiwan and China.
At 9:00 pm CET, the New Year began in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai welcomed the New Year with colorful fireworks and a laser show on the tallest building in the world. After the traditional digital countdown on the illuminated facade of the 828-meter-high Burj Khalifa in the largest city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the skyline lit up with a frenzy of colors at midnight.
In South America, people have to be patient a bit longer: parts of Brazil and Argentina can’t start the New Year until 4:00 a.m. CET, followed by New York at 6:00 a.m., Los Angeles at 9 a.m. 12:00 am and Honolulu in Hawaii at 11:00 am In New York, the “Ball Drop” in Times Square, a sparkling crystal ball falling onto a pole, is said to take place in front of a few people rather than the usual thousands. The place was cordoned off.
It takes until 1pm CET on January 1 for the whole world to slide into the new year. Finally, there are the uninhabited islets of Baker Island and Howland Island in the Pacific.
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