This New Year’s Eve is celebrated like no other in most parts of the world, with many saying goodbye to a year they would rather forget.
From the South Pacific to New York, pandemic restrictions on outdoor gatherings have seen people heading to fireworks for television or packing them early because they could not fry until the end of 2020 in the presence of friends or strangers.
As midnight passed from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and America, the New Year’s experience reflected national responses to the virus itself. Some countries and cities have canceled or reduced their festivities, while others without active outbreaks have continued like any other year.
Australia was among the first to call in 2021. In recent years, a million people have flocked to Sydney Harbor to watch fireworks. This time, most watched on television, while authorities urged residents to stay home to see the seven minutes of fireworks that lit up Sydney Harbor Bridge and its surroundings.
Melbourne, Australia’s second most populous city, has canceled its annual fireworks display to discourage crowds. London officials have made the same decision. And while the ball was to fall in New York’s Times Square as usual, police cordoned off the site synonymous with New Year’s Eve.
Another of the most popular places in the world, which will be on December 31, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, continued with its festivities, despite a wave of infections. Images of masked health workers briefly illuminated the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, before fireworks exploded in the sky above the building. Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets and markets marked for social distancing were largely ignored.
However, the pandemic kidnapped his free spirit at night. Authorities have implemented a series of antivirus measures to control the agitated crowds in central Dubai. At luxury bars and restaurants, music sounded and people drank, but dancing was strictly forbidden.
For some, restrictions have ruined the fun.
“People come to Dubai because it’s open, but there are so many rules,” said Bashir Shehu, 50, who was visiting Nigeria with his family. “We pray that next year we will celebrate with true freedom.”
South Africans were urged to cancel parties and light candles to honor health workers and people who died in the COVID-19 pandemic.
In many European countries, authorities have warned that they are ready to confront children who violate public health rules, including night extinguishers in France, Italy, Turkey, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Greece.
“No one will be on the streets after 10 pm (Athens) will be a dead city to ensure that no more restrictions are imposed,” said Greek Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisohoidis.
The French government has flooded the streets with 100,000 law enforcement officers to impose nationwide coverage.
Several families gathered in the sunny central square of Puerta de Sol in Madrid to listen to the repetition of the traditional sound of bells ringing at midnight. They followed the Spanish custom of eating 12 grapes with each ringing of the bells before the police cleaned the area that normally houses thousands of partygoers.
When the clock began at midnight, fireworks erupted over Moscow’s Red Square and the Acropolis of Athens, but the explosions resounded in mostly empty streets as people obeyed orders to stay home.
From Berlin to Brussels, the normally mischievous holidays have been turned off by the pandemic.
Even the British government, eager to celebrate the final separation of the United Kingdom from the EU, aired commercials urging the public to “see the New Year safely at home” amid a record number of recently confirmed cases.
In Scotland, which is proud of the Hogmanay holiday on December 31, the government has detailed what it expected not to see.
“No meetings, no house parties, no first steps. Instead, we should bring in 2021 into our own homes only with our own households, ”said Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Many around the world have looked forward to 2021, in part because of the arrival of vaccines which offers the chance to beat the pandemic.
“Goodbye, 2020. Here’s something better: 2021,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Although there will be no crowds in Times Square, the mayor has promised that the city, which has recorded more than 25,000 deaths from the virus, will return next year.
More than 1.8 million deaths worldwide have been linked to the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic.
Some leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, used their New Year’s speech to thank citizens for enduring hardships during the blockade and criticizing those who defied the rules.. Others, such as Italian President Sergio Mattarella, have thrown up the flag for science, urging citizens to drop their fears about immunization against COVID-19.
“Faced with such an extremely contagious disease, which causes so many deaths, we need to protect our own health and we need to protect the health of others – family members, friends, colleagues,” said 79-year-old Mattarella. for years.
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where fireworks and official holidays were also canceled to limit the rapid spread of the virus, police officers prepared for what promised to be a long night.
Rio officials have decided to close Copacabana, where millions of people dressed in white usually gather on the beach to marvel at fireworks and attend large concerts. This year, between 20:00 and 06:00, on January 1, only local residents will be able to access the iconic shore of the city, authorities said.
In South Korea, the Seoul government canceled its annual New Year’s Eve sound ceremony in the Jongno neighborhood for the first time since the event first took place in 1953, a few months after the end of the Korean War.
New Zealand, which is two hours ahead of Sydney, and several of its South Pacific island neighbors, who have no active cases of COVID-19, have been conducting regular New Year’s activities.
In Chinese societies, the virus has ensured quieter celebrations of the solar New Year, which is less observed than the Lunar New Year, which in 2021 will fall in February. Initial reports of a mysterious respiratory disease that plagued people in the Chinese city of Wuhan appeared exactly one year ago.
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Jordani reported from Bonn, Germany and Gatopoulos from Athens, Greece. PA reporters from around the world contributed to this report.