People gather at Times Square to watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve in New York City / Photo: Reuters
From Sydney to Mumbai to Paris to Rio de Janeiro, people around the world welcomed 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges.
The New Year’s Eve ball dropped in soggy Times Square, where thousands of revellers stuck it out in heavy rain to celebrate the start of 2025 in New York City.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean were the first to ring in the New Year, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball dropped in Times Square.
Auckland was the first major city to celebrate, with thousands thronging downtown or climbing the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point.
Conflict muted acknowledgement s of the start of 2025 in places like the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
American Samoa will be among the last to welcome 2025, a full 24 hours after New Zealand.
Fireworks light up the midnight sky over Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House during 2025 New Year’s Day celebrations in Sydney on January 1, 2025.
Earliest fireworks
A few hours after Auckland, fireworks blasted off Australia's Sydney Harbour Bridge and across the bay.
More than a million people gathered at the iconic Sydney Harbour for the celebration. British pop star Robbie Williams led a singalong with the crowd.
The celebration also featured Indigenous ceremonies and performances that acknowledged the land’s first people.
Tens of thousands march in Istanbul for Palestine on the first day of the new year as Israel's genocidal attack on Gaza continue. Image: AA
Istanbul prays for Gaza
In Türkiye's biggest city, Istanbul, tens of thousands gathered at the iconic Galata Bridge on New Year’s Day to express solidarity with Palestine.
Participants marched from mosques across the historic peninsula and beyond after early morning prayers, carrying Turkish and Palestinian flags.
American traditions, old and new
In New York City, crowds cheered and couples kissed when the ball weighing almost 6 tons (5.4 metric tons) and featuring 2,688 crystal triangles descended down a pole in Times Square.
The celebration included musical performances by TLC and the Jonas Brothers.
The revelry culminated with a dance party and a carpeting of soggy confetti as attendees left singing along to Frank Sinatra’s version of “New York, New York.”
A woman burns incense sticks and offers prayers at Yonghe Temple, also known as Lama Temple, on the first day of the new year in Beijing on January 1, 2025. (Photo by WANG Zhao / AFP)
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 upcoming Year of the Snake in the Asian zodiac is heralded as one of rebirth — alluding to the reptile’s shedding skin. 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 Sunday's crash of a Jeju Air flight in Muan that killed 179 people.
China, Russia exchange goodwill
Chinese state media covered an exchange of New Year’s greetings between leader 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.
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.
New Year celebrations in Mumbai.
Seaside celebrations and beyond
In India, thousands of revellers in the financial hub of Mumbai flocked to the city's 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. And in Nairobi, Kenya, scattered fireworks were heard.
A Holy Year begins
Rome’s traditional New Year’s Eve festivities have an additional draw: the start of Pope Francis’ Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration projected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
Pope Francis celebrated a vespers at St. Peter’s Basilica. During Mass on Wednesday he is expected to again appeal for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Fireworks illuminate the sky around the Arc de Triomphe on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris early January 1, 2025, during New Year celebrations.
Paris recaptures Olympic spirit
Paris capped a momentous 2024 with its traditional countdown and fireworks extravaganza on the Champs-Elysées.
The city’s emblematic Arc de Triomphe monument was turned into a giant tableau for a light show that celebrated the city's landmarks and the passage of time, with whirring clocks.
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.
Wintry weather, for good and bad
London rang in the New Year with a pyrotechnic display along the River Thames. With a storm bringing bitter weather to other parts of the United Kingdom, however, festivities in Edinburgh, Scotland, were canceled.
But in Switzerland and some other places, people embraced the cold, stripping and plunging into the water in freezing temperatures.
The iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer lit up as part of New Year celebrations in Rio de Janeiro.
Millions revel in Rio
Rio de Janeiro threw Brazil’s main New Year’s Eve bash on Copacabana beach, with barges shooting off 12 straight minutes of fireworks.
Thousands of tourists on cruise ships and charter boats witnessed the show up close, while many more streamed onto the sand to find their spot.
The crowd on Copacabana was expected to exceed 2 million people — most decked out in white to keep with tradition.
They packed together to enjoy concerts by Brazilian music legends Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia and Ivete Sangalo, among others. Right after the fireworks concluded, Brazil’s biggest pop star, Anitta, took the stage.
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