Revellers cheer in New Year around world despite bad weather forcing cancellations in UK
From Sydney to Mumbai to Nairobi, communities around the world began welcoming 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges
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Your support makes all the difference.Revellers have cheered in the new year around the world – including millions across the UK, despite bad weather forcing the cancellation of many celebrations.
From Sydney to Mumbai and Nairobi, communities around the world began welcoming 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges.
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 drop in Times Square in New York.
Auckland became the first major city to celebrate, as thousands thronged downtown or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a vantage point for the fireworks as well as a light display recognising Indigenous people.
Meanwhile, conflict muted acknowledgements of the new year in places like the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
A storm bringing bitter weather put a dampener on festivities in the UK, with a number of celebrations scrapped.
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay events, which include a street party and fireworks, were cancelled due to safety concerns.
Meanwhile, fireworks displays in Blackpool, Newcastle, Ripon in North Yorkshire, and the Isle of Wight were all axed.
However, London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks went ahead as planned as the capital defied weather concerns with a spectacular display that saw thousands gather on the banks of the River Thames.
The show was organised by the mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, who had declared it the “biggest fireworks taking place anywhere across Europe”.
Just a couple of hours before midnight, the Met Office issued a fresh amber warning for heavy rain that was set to lash parts of the country to begin 2025.
The alert has been put in place across parts of northwest England until 9am on New Year’s Day, stretching from Settle in the Yorkshire Dales across to Preston and down to parts of the Peak District.
The warning states that heavy rain is “likely to lead to disruption including flooding in some locations”, with a chance some places could see more than 10cm of rain.
Many faced heavy rain, strong winds and even snow in some parts, leading to widespread disruption on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, winds of up to 60mph are forecast across much of England and Wales all day on Wednesday, with gusts of 75mph likely around coastal areas and hills, according to the Met Office.
Rain turning to snow on New Year’s Day is likely to cause travel disruption, particularly on roads and railways across Grampian, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, and the Highlands & Eilean Siar, the Met Office said.
But in Switzerland and some other places people embraced the cold on New Year’s Eve, stripping and plunging into the water in freezing temperatures.
Among the first fireworks on 31 December were those that blasted off the Sydney Harbor Bridge and across the bay, with more than a million people gathered and pop star Robbie Williams leading a singalong with the crowd.
Paris was capping a momentous 2024 in which the French capital hosted the Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games, with its traditional countdown and fireworks extravaganza on the Champs-Elysees.
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 – while 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, while a fireworks display in Indonesia's Jakarta featured 800 drones.
In India, thousands of revellers in the financial hub of Mumbai flocked to the city's bustling promenade facing the Arabian Sea.
People gathered at Buddhist temples to light oil lamps and incense sticks and pray in Sri Lanka, while thousands attended a fireworks show at the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper, in Dubai.
And in Nairobi, Kenya, scattered fireworks were heard as midnight approached.
Rome's traditional New Year's Eve festivities signal 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.
Francis will celebrate Mass on New Year’s Day, when he is expected to again appeal for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
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 the leaders who face tensions with the West.
Meanwhile, Rio de Janeiro will soon throw Brazil's main New Year's Eve bash on Copacabana Beach, with ferries offshore bearing 12 straight minutes of fireworks.
In New York City, the organisation managing Times Square has tested its famous ball drop and inspected 2025 numerals, lights and thousands of crystals as part of a tradition going back to 1907 in preparation for this year’s celebration.
American Samoa will be among the last to welcome 2025, a full 24 hours after New Zealand.
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