Fireworks explode over the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Sydney, Australia, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014. Thousands of people crammed into Lady Macquaries Chair to watch the annual fireworks show. AP PHOTO/ROB GRIFFITH
Across the globe, revelers looking for a respite from the gloom will converge on the beaches of Brazil, the shores of Sydney harbor and the potentially snowy streets of Las Vegas (yes, really) to welcome 2015.
Sydney takes pride in being one of the first major cities in the world to welcome each new year, and it planned on greeting 2015 in its trademark glittery fashion—with a tropical-style fireworks display featuring shimmering gold and silver palm tree pyrotechnic effects.
More than 1.5 million revelers were expected to crowd along the shores of the city’s famed harbor to watch the vivid eruption of light over Harbour Bridge, Opera House and other points along the water.
The festivities, however, come just two weeks after an Iranian-born, self-styled cleric took 18 people hostage inside a downtown café. A tribute to two hostages killed in the siege will be displayed on the pylons of Harbour Bridge during the fireworks display, and an extra 3,000 police officers will be patrolling the city. Still, Sydneysiders are being encouraged to celebrate as usual.
In New Zealand, a giant clock on Auckland’s landmark Sky Tower structure will count down the minutes until the new year, with a huge fireworks display launching from the tower at midnight. The capital, Wellington, will host a family-friendly celebration in a park, featuring orchestra music and iconic movie clips, culminating in a fireworks display. Midnight in New Zealand is 1100 GMT.
Prayers in Jakarta
The loss of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 and a deadly landslide in Central Java are recent tragedies that have muted celebration plans in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. City Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama told The Jakarta Post newspaper that the city would conduct prayers for the victims of the tragedies as well as host the annual Jakarta Night Festival.
PH police warned
Acting National Police chief Leonardo Espina has warned that police in the Philippines who fire their guns during normally raucous celebrations will lose their jobs. Thunderous fireworks and gunfire normally leave communities shrouded in smog and gun smoke, and result in hundreds of injuries every year, even deaths, some due to stray bullets. Since the Christmas holiday celebrations began on Dec. 21, more than 160 people have been injured.
Bidding with the Chinese
Beijing will count down the new year at an event in Olympic Park designed to highlight the capital’s bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Skaters will perform and Olympic medalist figure skater Zhao Hongbo, Paralympics gold medalist swimmer Yang Yang and pianist Lang Lang will appear. Celebrations will also take place in Zhangjiakou, the city in neighboring Hebei province, which is cohosting the bid, and at the foot of part of the Great Wall in the northwest of Beijing.
Shopping with the Japanese
Japanese stores generally close for New Year’s Day, the country’s biggest traditional holiday, so Wednesday was a day for shopping and stocking up for many in preparation for the annual feast, called osechi ryori.
At midnight, temple bells will strike 108 times, the number of evils, or temptations, as defined by Buddhism. There will be fireworks and bonfires around the nation as millions of people flock to neighborhood temples and shrines to pray for health and happiness.
At the Copa … Copacabana
More than 1 million people are expected to flock to the golden sands of Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach, where two dozen artists and DJs will perform on three stages. Tourists and locals routinely party until dawn on the beach, staying awake to watch the tropical sun rise for the first time in 2015.
A massive fireworks display blasted from boats in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean will light the sky over the crowd, which traditionally dresses in all white, a Brazilian New Year’s Eve tradition to bring purification and a peaceful year. Another tradition calls for partygoers to enter the sea up to their knees and jump over seven waves shortly after the new year begins, for luck.
Watching the ball drop
New York will drop its Waterford crystal ball at midnight, in a tradition being increasingly copied across the United States with twists celebrating local icons. Las Cruces, New Mexico, is spicing up New Year’s Eve with its first chili drop. In Miami, a 10-meter (35-foot) neon orange will light up, while Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee, will drop a peach and a musical note, respectively.
The giant glittering crystal ball was tested on Tuesday ahead of the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square where up to a million revelers are expected to ring in 2015.
“It was such a difficult 2014, we’re going to have a great celebration to ring in the new year,” said Jeffrey Straus, president of the Times Square Alliance, which runs the event.
Amid the celebration, some US cities are on alert for New Year’s Eve protests related to recent police killings of unarmed black men. Boston’s mayor and police commissioner urged activists to hold off on a planned “die-in.” No plans for major protests were announced in New York, where the police department is still mourning two officers shot to death in a patrol car. But security will be tight, with more personnel than usual.
Snow in Sin City?
Las Vegas isn’t a place that expects snow, no less on New Year’s Eve. So with meteorologists at the National Weather Service saying there’s a chance that flurries might fall on the gambling capital’s Strip and the hundreds of thousands of revelers ringing in the new year, the agency warned visitors: Dress warmly and wear comfortable shoes—it’s going to be a cold night.
Organizers of the fireworks display say the show will go on, with or without snow. Forecasts in Las Vegas pin the area’s chances for New Year’s Eve snow at 70 percent along with a 0 degree Celsius low. But for that to happen, meteorologist Chris Stachelski says there needs to be moisture in the air, and that’s far from a certainty for the Strip.
In Madrid a day early
Thousands of horn-tooting, hat-wearing revelers jammed Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square on Tuesday, braving freezing temperatures to ring in 2015 a day early.
The crowd roared and jumped up and down as the clock in the 18th century Real Casa de Correos, the seat of the regional government of Madrid, struck midnight, even though the new year only starts 24 hours later.
Many followed a Spanish New Year’s Eve custom and gobbled a grape on each of the 12 chimes at midnight for 12 months of good luck while others counted the clangs of the clock out loud.
Some used French fries or chocolate-covered peanuts instead of grapes.
City officials test the chimes the day before New Year’s Eve to make sure they are working properly and each year a growing sea of people come for the trial run to start celebrating early.
Many said they came to avoid the much larger crowd that turns out on New Year’s Eve for the countdown in the square, watched live by millions of people across Spain on television.
“Tomorrow it would be impossible to come down here, there would be too many people,” said Fatima Rodriguez de Ahumada, a 33-year-old secretary who came with her husband and sister.
“We are going to spend New Year’s Eve at home and we will watch it all on television. This way we get a taste of what it is like.” Dozens of police frisked revelers as they entered the square and searched rucksacks to prevent glass bottles from being brought in while several ambulances stood by.
Colored undies, potatoes
Put on your yellow underwear, toss your potatoes under the bed and grab your suitcase for a walk around the block: The clock is about to strike midnight on New Year’s Eve in Latin America.
From the northern deserts of Mexico to the southern glaciers of Patagonia, the region has a host of colorful New Year’s Eve traditions and superstitions, some of them holdovers from colonial times, some homegrown and some blending cultures and customs in Latin Americans’ unique style.
In many countries, revelers ring in the new year by walking around the neighborhood with a suitcase, a ritual that is meant to guarantee a year of journeys.
“In 2012, I ran around carrying my suitcases and I ended up traveling to Europe. I did the same in 2013 and I went to Argentina. So I’m definitely doing it again this year,” said Carla Romero, a communications specialist in the Ecuadoran capital Quito.
Other Latin Americans sweep the floor or clean house to get rid of bad vibes. In Mexico, the custom includes washing the doorstep.
Inherited from Spain
In much of the region, revelers eat 12 grapes, cramming one in with each toll of the clock at midnight—a ritual inherited from Spain.
The grapes must be divided into six red and six white, according to some keepers of the tradition.
“In my family, we put them in little packets so everyone can make their wishes,” said Tatiana Ariza, a Colombian housewife.
The wishes must be kept strictly secret “or they won’t come true,” she added.
In Cuba, which had to give up on grapes during a period of severe shortages, people throw buckets of water out their windows to wash away evil—a ritual also followed in Uruguay, which like the communist island usually has hot weather this time of year.
Other people put money in their shoes or tie three Chinese coins together with a red ribbon to ensure a prosperous year.
For new year’s decor, many place stalks of wheat, a symbol of prosperity, alongside images of angels or the Virgin Mary.
“Changing seasons requires rites. From Central America to Patagonia, these rites to mark the end of the year are inherited from pagan traditions, from Ancient Rome, from the Egyptians, combined with indigenous American traditions and African culture,” said Fabian Sanabria, head of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History.
Though the rise of secularism has weakened the hold of ritual on people’s lives, the uncertainties of today’s world have left more individuals from all social classes grasping for the comfort of superstition.
“It’s the zenith of astrologers and horoscopes,” Sanabria told Agence France-Presse.
Pink undies for love
In Peru, women shoppers snap up new year’s underwear in yellow, a color associated with happiness and friendship.
In Uruguay and Argentina, the preferred color is pink, which is supposed to bring luck in love.
In Colombia, many women choose red, the color of passion.
The first bath of the year is another key rite.
In the Colombian capital Bogota, herb sellers at the Paloquemao market offer bitter- and sweet-smelling bundles to make a purifying bath.
Others use champagne. Douse your body in bubbly and let it dry for a year full of happiness and success, they say.
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