New Year’s revellers ring in 2024, but war casts shadow over celebrations
Global News
Cities around the globe from New York City to Sydney, Australia celebrated New Year's Eve with fireworks displays, while ongoing conflicts cast a pall over celebrations for many.
New Year’s Day arrived to cheers from thousands in New York’s Times Square where a sparkling crystal ball descended to start 2024 with hope for some, even as the world’s ongoing conflicts subdued celebrations and raised security concerns across the globe.
“It’s beautiful,” Corin Christian of Charlotte, North Carolina, said of the scene seconds past midnight as Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” blared from speakers in the square and many in the crowd held cell phones in the air, trying to capture the spectacle.
“It’s going very well so far,” said Jacob Eriksson of Salt Lake City, Utah, with the earliest assessment of the New Year.
The march of midnight from time zone to time zone brought 2024 first to places like Australia, where more than one million people watched a pyrotechnic display centered around Sydney’s famous Opera House and harbor bridge — a number of spectators equivalent to one in five of the city’s residents. It would be another 16 hours before New York finished 2023.
There were snapshots of joy from country to country as the new year was welcomed with optimism that its days will bring more joy than sorrow.
Before midnight arrived in Times Square, December Lee, 26, and Shadayah Lawrence, 25, of Columbus, Ohio, said their New York visit highlighted four years of traveling the globe.
“It is a good way to bring in the new year,” Lee said.
Also in Times Square, Tyrell Jacobs, 27, and Sarah Crayton, 26, arrived from New Orleans 15 hours before midnight and got engaged in streets packed with tens of thousands of people counting first the hours and then the minutes until midnight.
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