New Year's celebrations around the world ring in 2025
CBC
From Sydney to Vladivostok to Mumbai and St. John's, communities around the world welcomed 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and other ways to say goodbye to 2024.
A fireworks display over Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John's, N.L., helped usher in the new year in Canada.
In Auckland, the first major city to celebrate, thousands took to the downtown area or climbed the city's ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point. A light display recognized Indigenous people.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean were the first to ring in 2025, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square in New York City.
Conflict muted marking the new year in places like the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
Fireworks blasted off the Sydney Harbour Bridge and across the bay. More than a million Australians and others gathered at 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.
Toronto was set to feature a 10-minute waterfront fireworks display and a series of pop-up performances. In previous years, about 250,000 people attended the display at the waterfront.
Much of Japan shut down ahead of the nation's biggest holiday, as temples and homes underwent a thorough cleaning.
The Year of the Snake in the Asian zodiac in 2025 is heralded as one of rebirth — alluding to the reptile's shedding skin.
Stores in Japan, which observes the zodiac cycle from Jan. 1, have been selling snake-themed products. 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. A fireworks display in Jakarta featured 800 drones.
Chinese state media covered an exchange of 2025 greetings between Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a reminder of growing closeness between two leaders who face tensions with the West.
The Department of Justice says no one was hurt during what it's calling a disturbance at Her Majesty's Penitentiary on Friday night.
Hundreds of people gathered for protests in seven cities across the province Saturday, including in Montreal and Quebec City, speaking out against the Quebec government's decision to scrap a popular immigration program and calling it inhumane.
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Politicians and local stakeholders met in Indian Head on Friday to make a plan as a farm research centre in the eastern Saskatchewan town faces closure.
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One by one, friends and family of two 20-year-olds killed in a 2023 car crash read wrenching victim impact statements Friday in a Kentville, N.S., courtroom, describing their searing grief over the young lives cut short, words coupled with tears and, at moments, seething with anger.
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