This New Year’s Eve is being celebrated like no other in most parts of the world, with many saying goodbye to a year they prefer to forget.
From the South Pacific to New York City, pandemic restrictions on outdoor meetings made people resort to fireworks made for TV or package them from the start, as they could not toast at the end of 2020 in the presence of friends or strangers partying.
As midnight traveled from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americas, the New Year’s experience reflected national responses to the virus itself. Some countries and cities canceled or reduced their festivities, while others without active outbreaks continued as in any other year.
Australia was one of the first to play in 2021. In the past few years, 1 million people have packed Sydney’s harbor to watch fireworks. This time, most watched on television while authorities urged residents to stay at home to watch the seven minutes of pyrotechnics that lit up the Sydney Harbor Bridge and its surroundings.
Melbourne, Australia’s second most populous city, canceled its annual fireworks show to discourage the crowds. London officials made the same decision. And while the ball was scheduled to fall in New York’s Times Square as usual, the police surrounded the place that was synonymous with New Year’s Eve.
Another of the most popular places in the world to be on December 31, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has advanced with its revelry, despite the outbreak of infections. Images of masked health workers briefly illuminated Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, before fireworks exploded in the sky over the building. Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets and squares marked for social distance were largely ignored.
Still, the pandemic stole his free spirit from the night. The authorities have implemented a series of anti-virus measures to control noisy crowds in central Dubai. In luxurious bars and restaurants, music played and people drank, but dancing was strictly prohibited.
For some, the restrictions spoiled the fun.
“People come to Dubai because it is open, but there are so many rules,” said Bashir Shehu, 50, who was visiting from Nigeria with his family. “We pray that next year we can celebrate with some real freedom.”
South Africans were urged to cancel parties and light candles to honor health professionals and people who died in the COVID-19 pandemic.
In many European countries, authorities have warned that they are ready to crack down on revelers who violate public health rules, including night curfews in France, Italy, Turkey, Latvia, Czech Republic and Greece.
“No one will be on the streets after 10 pm (Athens) will be a dead city to ensure that no further restrictions are imposed,” said Greece’s Minister of Public Order, Michalis Chrisohoidis.
The French government flooded the streets with 100,000 police to enforce the curfew across the country.
Some families gathered in Madrid’s sunny central square Puerta de Sol to hear the rehearsal of the traditional ringing of the bells that takes place at midnight. They followed the Spanish custom of eating 12 grapes with each ring of the bells before the police cleaned the area that normally hosts thousands of revelers.
When the clock struck midnight, fireworks exploded in Moscow’s Red Square and the Acropolis in Athens, but the explosions echoed through the empty streets as people obeyed orders to stay home.
From Berlin to Brussels, the normally strident celebrations were silenced by the pandemic.
Even the British government, eager to celebrate the UK’s definitive separation from the EU, published ads pleading with the public to “see the new year safely at home” amid a record number of newly confirmed cases.
In Scotland, which prides itself on Hogmanay celebrations on December 31, the government has detailed what it hoped not to see.
“No meetings, no parties at home, no first steps. Instead, we must bring 2021 into our own homes, with only our own homes, ”said Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Many around the world looked to 2021 with hope, partly due to the arrival of vaccines that offer a chance to beat the pandemic.
“Goodbye, 2020. Here comes something better: 2021,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Although there are no crowds in Times Square, the mayor has promised that the city, which has recorded more than 25,000 deaths from the virus, will recover next year.
More than 1.8 million deaths worldwide have been associated with the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
Some leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, used their New Year’s speech to thank citizens for enduring adversity during the blockade and criticizing those who defied the rules. Others, like Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella, raised the flag of science, urging citizens to dismiss their fears of being immunized against COVID-19.
“In the face of such a contagious disease that causes so many deaths, it is necessary to protect one’s own health and that of others – family members, friends, colleagues”, said Mattarella, 79.
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where official fireworks and celebrations were also canceled to limit the rapid spread of the virus, police prepared for what promised to be a long night.
Rio authorities have decided to close Copacabana, where millions of people dressed in white usually gather on the beach to marvel at the fireworks and watch big shows. This year, between 8:00 pm and 6:00 am on January 1, only local residents will have access to the city’s iconic coastline, officials said.
In South Korea, the Seoul city government canceled its annual New Year’s Eve ringing ceremony in the Jongno neighborhood for the first time since the event was first held in 1953, months after the end of the Korean War .
New Zealand, which is two hours ahead of Sydney, and several of its neighbors in the South Pacific islands that also have no active COVID-19 cases have carried out their usual New Year’s activities.
In Chinese societies, the virus ensured quieter celebrations of the solar New Year, which is less widely observed than the Lunar New Year which in 2021 will fall in February. Initial reports of a mysterious respiratory illness that made people sick in the Chinese city of Wuhan surfaced exactly a year ago.
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Jordans reported from Bonn, Germany, and Gatopoulos from Athens, Greece. AP reporters around the world contributed to this report.