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NEW Zealand and Australia have ushered in the New Year with huge crowds and fireworks as they bid farewell to 2020.
After a difficult year in which at least 1.7 million people died from Covid-19, new waves of infection have prompted new closures and forced would-be revelers to extend their 2020 tradition of watching events from the couch.
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New Zealand, which has earned praise for its handling of the coronavirus, with large crowds gathering in Auckland to watch a fireworks display.
Although still isolated by international border closures, months of zero reported cases in the community have allowed life in New Zealand to return to relative normalcy.
In Australia’s largest city, Sydney, pyrotechnics lit up the glittering harbor with a dazzling display, but few onlookers were able to see it in person.
Buddhists in Thailand deposit in coffins as part of a resurrection ceremony as the rest of the world begins to bid farewell to a virus-ridden 2020.
Thailand has started to ring in its new year with Buddhist devotees gathered outside of Bangkok to participate in a coffin resurrection ceremony.
The ritual takes place at Wat Takien in Nanthaburi, with the intention of bringing good luck and removing any past misfortunes from those who participate.
The royal ceremony includes lying inside a coffin while the monks cover it with a shroud while singing the prayers of the death rites.
When the ritual is completed, the participants rise from the coffin, symbolically showing the resurrection process.
Thailand is one of many countries that ring in the new year in different ways, from Sydney to Rome, fireworks, pyre burning, and live performances will be seen online or on television, if they have not been canceled entirely.
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Plans to allow crowds were scrapped amid a pool of around 150 new infections that have seen travel to and from Sydney severely restricted.
“I think everyone looks to 2021 as a new beginning and a new beginning,” Karen Roberts, one of the lucky few who were allowed to pass through the area’s checkpoints, told AFP at a bar located underneath the Sydney Opera House.
In Italy, there will be no celebrations due to the national shutdown until January 7.
Italy was where shocking images of makeshift morgues and exhausted doctors awakened the world to the severity of the crisis.
From France to Latvia to Brazil, police and in some cases military personnel are being deployed to ensure night curfews or bans on large gatherings are enforced.
In London, 74-year-old American singer-songwriter Patti Smith will welcome the New Year with a tribute to National Health Service workers who died from Covid-19, screened on the Piccadilly Circus screen and broadcast in Youtube.
Thousands of people are expected to attend a Dubai fireworks and laser show at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, despite an influx of new cases.
All those attending the event, whether in a public place, hotel or restaurant, must wear masks and register with QR codes.
In Beirut, a city still reeling from the port explosion on August 4, authorities are breaking free with a nightly curfew that has been postponed to 3 a.m.
Bars, restaurants and nightclubs have reopened and are announcing big parties to mark the turn of the year.
What time does the world ring on New Years Eve?
New Years celebrations are likely to be moderate this year, but which nation kicks off the New Year first? With 2021 arriving at different times around the world, here is a list of who are the first and last to ring in the New Year.
December 31, 2020
- 10:00 am – Samoa and Christmas Island / Kiribati
- 10:15 am – New Zealand
- 13:00 – Most of Australia
- 3:00 pm: Japan, South Korea and North Korea
- 4:00 p.m. – China, Philippines, Singapore
- 5pm – Thailand, Cambodia and much of Indonesia
- 6:00 pm – Bangladesh
- 6.15pm – Nepal
- 6.30 pm – India and Sri Lanka
- 19:00 – Pakistan
- 8pm – Azerbaijan
- 8.30 pm – Iran
- 9:00 pm: Turkey, Iraq, Kenya and most of Russia
- 10pm: Greece, Romania, South Africa, Hungary and other cities in Central and Eastern Europe
- 23:00 – Germany, France, Italy, Algeria, Belgium, Spain
- Midnight – UK, Ireland, Ghana, Iceland, Portugal
January 1, 2021
- 2am – Regions of Brazil
- 3 am – Argentina, regions of Brazil, Chile, Paraguay
- 4 am – Some regions of Canada, Bolivia, Puerto Rico
- 5:00 a. M., US Eastern Standard Time, New York, Washington, Detroit, and Cuba
- 6 a. M., US Central Standard Time, Chicago
- 7 am – US Mountain Standard Time – Colorado, Arizona
- 8 am – US Pacific Standard Time – Los Angeles, Nevada
- 9 am – Alaska
- 10:00 am – Hawaii
- 11:00 am – American Samoa
- 12:00 pm – Baker Island, Howland Island
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Chancellor Angela Merkel used her New Year’s greeting on Thursday to warn Germans that the “historic” coronavirus crisis will extend into 2021, even if vaccines provide some hope.
In Brazil, which has already recorded more than 193,000 deaths from Covid-19, the second-largest number in the world, medical workers are expecting a new wave.
“The peak of the pandemic was between May and July, which was when there was not much movement and we take care of ourselves more. Now there are many cases and people are acting as if there was no pandemic,” said Luiz Gustavo. de Almeida, a microbiologist at the University of Sao Paulo.
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