New Zealand's main city of Auckland became one of the first to see in the New Year with onlookers gathering at the harbour to enjoy the fireworks display.
As the clock struck midnight (11:00 GMT, 7 a.m. ET), fireworks were set off over the the city's 328-metre Sky Tower near the harbour, to the sound of boat horns.
In Sydney, eager revellers camped Sunday night on the shores of the harbour to get the best vantage points as 1.5 million gathered to watch the fireworks show centred on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Sydney's skyline erupted with fireworks as revellers cheered.
The crowds were undiminished by Australian government warnings that the Washington deadlock on the U.S. debt crisis was partly to blame for a slowing Australian economy.
Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue hosted the event.
New Yorker Mathieu Herman said he had flown to Australia specifically for the New Year celebrations on the harbour.
"I saw it last year on TV and it looked fabulous. I said to myself it's something I've just got to do," Herman said.
The South Pacific nation is one of the first to greet each New Year because of its proximity to the International Date Line.
In Asia, also among the first countries to see 2013, Increasingly democratic Burma, also known as Myanmar, is having a public countdown for the first time. Jakarta plans a huge street party befitting Indonesia's powering economy.
In Hong Kong, this year's $1.6-million US fireworks display is billed by organizers as the biggest ever in the southern Chinese city. Police expected as many as 100,000 people to watch, local news reports said.
The buoyant economies of the Asia-Pacific are prepared to party with renewed optimism despite the so-called fiscal cliff threatening to reverberate globally from the United States and the tattered economies of Europe.
Other countries prepare to mark 2013
Celebrations were planned around the world, with hundreds of thousands expected to fill Times Square in New York City to watch the drop of a Waterford crystal-studded ball, and the annual outdoor festivities in Canada featuring celebrity musical acts at popular partying locations such as Toronto's downtown Nathan Phillips Square outside city hall, and Queen Victoria Park in Niagara Falls, Ont.
One day after dancing in the snow to celebrate the first anniversary of leader Kim Jong Un's ascension to supreme commander, North Koreans were preparing to mark the arrival of the new year, marked as "Juche 102" on North Korean calendars. Juche means self-reliance, the North Korean ideology of independence promoted by national founder Kim Il Sung, who was born 102 years ago. His grandson now rules North Korea.
Fireworks explode above Sydney Harbour during New Year celebrations. The crowds were undiminished by Australian government warnings that the U.S. deadlock on the debt crisis was partly to blame for a slowing Australian economy. Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013.(AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
In New Delhi, the festive mood was marred by the death Saturday of a young rape victim.
Hotels, clubs and residents' associations in the Indian capital decided to cancel planned festivities and asked people to light candles to express their solidarity with the victim whose plight sparked public rallies for women's safety.
"Let there be no New Year celebrations across the country. It will be a major tribute to the departed soul," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders, an umbrella group of operators of shops and businesses across the country.
In a field in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, workers were testing a giant digital countdown screen with the backdrop of the revered Shwedagon pagoda.
Arranged by local Forever Media group and Index Creative Village, a Thai event organizer, the celebration is the first public New Year countdown in Myanmar, a country ruled for almost five decades by military regimes that discouraged or banned big public gatherings.
"We are planning this public New Year event because we want residents of Yangon to enjoy the public countdown like in other countries," said Win Thura Hlaing, managing director of Forever Blossom company, a subsidiary of Forever Media.
With live music performances by celebrities, light shows, food stalls, fireworks and other activities, the countdown is expected to draw 50,000 people, Win Thura Hlaing said.
Jakarta's street party centres on a seven-kilometre main thoroughfare closed to all traffic from nightfall until after midnight. Workers erected 16 large stages along the normally car-clogged, eight-lane highway through the heart of the city. Indonesia's booming economy is a rare bright spot amid global gloom and is bringing prosperity — or the hope of it — to Indonesians.
Spirits in the capital have been further raised by the election of a new, populist governor who is pledging to tackle the city's massive infrastructure problems.
Firecrackers a worry in Philippines
Despite a sombre mood in the Philippines due to devastation from a recent typhoon, a key problem for authorities remained how to prevent revellers from setting off huge illegal firecrackers, including some nicknamed "Goodbye Philippines" and "Bin Laden," that maim and injure hundreds of Filipinos each year, including many children.
A government scare tactic involving doctors displaying brutal-looking scalpels used for amputations for firecracker victims has not fully worked in the past so health officials came up with a novel idea: Go Gangnam style.
Despite a ban by authorities in the Philippines on certain firecrackers due to injuries and death, many people still welcomed the New Year with fireworks in the belief that it will drive away evil spirits and bring in good luck. (Aaron Favila/Associated Press)
A government health official, Eric Tayag, donned the splashy outfit of South Korean star PSY and danced to his Youtube hit Gangnam Style video while preaching against the use of illegal firecrackers on TV, in schools and in public arenas.
"The campaign has become viral," Tayag said. "We've asked kids and adults to stay away from big firecrackers and just dance the Gangnam and they're doing it."
Hong Kong feng shui master Raymond Lo predicted 2013 would be less turbulent than 2012 because the Chinese New Year in February will usher in the year of the snake, bringing an end to the year of the dragon, which was associated with water. Water is one of the five elements in feng shui theory, the Chinese practice of arranging objects and choosing dates to improve luck.
"Water is fear. So that's why we have had so much turbulence especially in the winter months," such as doomsday prophecies, school shootings and concerns about the fiscal cliff, said Lo.
"But the good news is that the coming year of the snake is the first time that fire has come back since 2007. Fire actually is the opposite to water, fire is happiness. So therefore the year of the snake is a much more optimistic year. So you can see signs of economic recovery now," he added.
"The positive thing is that people are very optimistic, therefore it will have a very strong drive on the economic recovery. We expect the stock market will do well, the property market will do well," Lo said.
With files from CBC NewsAnda sedang membaca artikel tentang
New Year celebrations to mark 2013 get rolling
Dengan url
http://topstorinfo.blogspot.com/2012/12/new-year-celebrations-to-mark-2013-get.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
New Year celebrations to mark 2013 get rolling
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
New Year celebrations to mark 2013 get rolling
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar