From Sydney to Vladivostok to Mumbai, communities around the world began welcoming 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and other ways to say goodbye to 2024.
In Auckland, the first major city to celebrate, thousands took to the downtown area or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point. A light display recognized Indigenous people.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean were the first to ring in 2025, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square in New York City.
Conflict muted marking the new year in places like the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
Fireworks blasted off the Sydney Harbour Bridge and across the bay. More than a million Australians and others gathered at 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.
Communities in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong were among the first in the world to ring in 2025, and they did so in style with the help of music, lasers and fireworks.
Toronto was set to feature a 10-minute waterfront fireworks display and a series of pop-up performances. In previous years, about 250,000 people attended the display at the waterfront.
Asia gets ready for the Year of the Snake
Much of Japan shut down ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday, as temples and homes underwent a thorough cleaning.
The Year of the Snake in the Asian zodiac in 2025 is heralded as one of rebirth — alluding to the reptile’s shedding skin.
Stores in Japan, which observes the zodiac cycle from Jan. 1, have been selling snake-themed products. Other places in Asia will mark the Year of the Snake later with the Lunar New Year.
In South Korea, celebrations were cut back or cancelled during a period of national mourning following the Sunday crash of a Jeju Air flight at Muan that killed 179 people.
In Bangkok, shopping malls competed for crowds with live musical acts and fireworks shows. A fireworks display in Jakarta featured 800 drones.
West’s rivals exchange goodwill
Chinese state media covered an exchange of 2025 greetings between Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a reminder of growing closeness between two leaders who face tensions with the West.
Xi told Putin their countries will “always move forward hand in hand,” the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.
China has maintained ties and robust trade with Russia since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022, helping to offset Western sanctions and attempts to isolate Putin.
In India, thousands of revellers in the financial hub of Mumbai 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 show at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. In Nairobi, scattered fireworks were heard as midnight approached.
Conflicts cast shadow in the Middle East
Celebrations were expected to be subdued in Israel and Gaza, where the war with Hamas grinds through a 15th month, with tens of thousands of people killed and scores of hostages remaining in captivity.
Dubai welcomed the new year with fireworks over the iconic Burj Khalifa, while Bangkok’s fireworks crafted from sticky rice lit up the sky in pastel and gold hues. In Damascus, people gathered at a Christmas market to ring in 2025, some waving Syrian flags and recording the fireworks display on their phones.
Lebanon is in the grip of a severe economic crisis, and many areas were heavily damaged during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Syrians have expressed hope and uncertainty for the coming year after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad as president.
A holy year begins
Rome’s traditional New Year’s Eve festivities had an additional draw: the start of Pope Francis’s Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration projected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
On Tuesday, Francis was set to celebrate a vespers at St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by mass on Wednesday, when he is expected to once again appeal for peace amid wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Hours before Germany rang in the new year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on its 84 million residents to stick together despite global crises and wars, the country’s ailing economy and a deadly 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,” Scholz said in his prerecorded speech.
Paris recaptures Olympic spirit
Paris was set to cap a momentous 2024 with its traditional festive countdown and fireworks extravaganza on the famed Champs-Élysées.
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, and marked another major milestone in its recovery from deadly extremist attacks in 2015 by al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
London, meanwhile, was due to ring in the year with a pyrotechnic display along the River Thames and a parade through the city centre on Wednesday.
With a storm bringing bitter weather to other parts of the United Kingdom, however, festivities in Edinburgh — including the Hogmanay Street party, garden concert and castle pyrotechnics show — were already cancelled.
2 million revellers
Rio de Janeiro was set to throw Brazil’s main New Year’s Eve bash on Copacabana Beach, with 10 ferries offshore bearing 12 straight minutes of fireworks., and thousands of tourists in six cruise ships expected to witness the show up close.
Rio’s city hall was closely guarding its plans for a display of lights and sounds.
American traditions old and new
In New York City, the organization managing Times Square tested its famous ball drop and inspected 2025 numerals, lights and thousands of crystals, as part of a tradition going back to 1907. Musical performances by TLC, Jonas Brothers, Rita Ora and Sophie Ellis-Bextor were scheduled for this year’s celebration.
The party, covering multiple blocks around the city’s main tourism and theatre hub, was expected to draw large crowds despite rain and chilly weather.
Las Vegas was set to bid farewell to 2024 with old — and some new — traditions. Its annual eight-minute pyrotechnic show will be on in the Las Vegas Strip, with 340,000 people anticipated as fireworks are launched from the rooftops of nine casinos.
Nearby, the massive Sphere venue was to display for the first time countdowns to midnight in different time zones.
