From Sydney to Vladivostok to Mumbai and Vancouver, communities around the world welcomed 2025 with spectacular light shows, hugs and other ways to say goodbye to 2024.
New Year’s Eve brought mild conditions in Eastern Canada and coastal British Columbia, but cold temperatures in the Prairies.
A fireworks display over Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John’s helped usher in the new year in Canada.
CBC News aired special coverage of the celebrations from coast to coast to coast, with chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault and co-host Jann Arden reading some of the marriage proposals Canadians sent to the CBC.
Canada Live! Countdown 2025 hosts Adrienne Arsenault and Jann Arden read some of the marriage proposals Canadians sent to CBC during the New Year’s Eve special.
Countries in the South Pacific were the first to drop in 2025, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball dropped in Times Square in New York City. The conflict died down marking the new year in countries such as the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
In Auckland, the first major city to celebrate, thousands of people took to the downtown area or climbed the ring of the city’s volcanic peaks for a vantage point of the fireworks. A light screen recognized the indigenous people.
Communities in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong were among the first in the world to ring in 2025, and they did it in style with the help of music, lasers and fireworks.
Fireworks went off on the Sydney Harbor Bridge and across the bay. More than a million Australians and others gathered on Sydney’s iconic harbor for the celebration. British pop star Robbie Williams led a song along with the crowd.
The celebration also featured indigenous ceremonies and performances.
Toronto presented a 10-minute fireworks display and a series of pop-up shows.
CBC Chief Correspondent Adrienne Arsenault and recording artist Jann Arden ring in the new year at the Harbourfront Center in downtown Toronto.
In previous years, about 250,000 people attended the seaside exhibition.
Asia gets ready for the Year of the Snake
Much of Japan was shut down ahead of the country’s biggest holiday, as temples and homes underwent a thorough cleaning.
The Year of the Snake in the Asian zodiac in 2025 has been heralded as the year of rebirth – alluding to the shedding of reptilian skin.
Shops in Japan, which observe the zodiac cycle from January 1, have been selling snake-themed products. Other countries in Asia will mark the Year of the Snake later with the Lunar New Year.
CBC’s Amy Smith takes Canadians to New Year’s Eve in downtown Halifax and CBC’s Sheehan Desjardins joins the party at the China Garden restaurant in Charlottetown.
In South Korea, celebrations were interrupted or canceled during a period of national mourning after Sunday’s crash of a Jeju Air flight in Muan that killed 179 people.
In Bangkok, malls competed for crowds with live music acts and fireworks displays. A fireworks display in Jakarta featured 800 drones.
The West’s rivals exchange goodwill
Chinese state media covered an exchange of 2025 greetings between Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a reminder of the growing closeness between the two leaders facing tensions with the West.
Xi told Putin that their countries “will always move forward hand in hand,” the official Xinhua News Agency said on Tuesday.
China has maintained strong ties and trade with Russia since the latter invaded Ukraine in 2022, helping offset Western sanctions and efforts to isolate Putin.
In India, thousands of revelers in the financial hub of Mumbai flocked to the 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 of people watched a fireworks display at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. In Nairobi, scattered fireworks were heard as midnight approached.
Conflicts cast a shadow over the Middle East
Celebrations were expected to be subdued in Israel and Gaza, where the war with Hamas ends in its 15th month, with tens of thousands of people killed and dozens of hostages held captive.
CBC’s Nancy Carlson takes Canadians to New Year’s Eve in Edmonton and CBC’s Jo Horwood celebrates in Calgary.
Lebanon is in the grip of a severe economic crisis and many areas were severely damaged during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Syrians have expressed hope and uncertainty for the coming year following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad as president.
A holy year begins
Rome’s traditional New Year’s celebrations had an added attraction: the start of Pope Francis’ Holy Year, the once-in-a-quarter-century celebration that is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
On Tuesday, Francis was scheduled to celebrate a dinner at St. Peter’s Basilica, followed by Mass on Wednesday, when he is expected to once again call for peace amid the wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Hours before Germany rang in the new year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on its 84 million people to stick together despite global crises and wars, the country’s ailing economy and a deadly Christmas market attack that rocked the nation.
“We are a country of unity and we can draw strength from that – especially in difficult times like these,” Scholz said in his pre-recorded speech.
Paris greets the year with a party on the Champs-Elysées
Paris closed a momentous 2024 with the traditional countdown and fireworks extravaganzas on the Champs-Elysées. The city’s iconic Arc de Triomphe was transformed into a giant tableau for a light show celebrating the city’s landmarks and the passing of time with spinning clocks.
The Summer Olympics and Paralympics hosted in the French capital from July to September had transformed the city into a place of joy, brotherhood and amazing sporting achievements.
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 UK, however, celebrations in Edinburgh, Scotland, were cancelled.
2 million entertainers
Rio de Janeiro was having Brazil’s main New Year’s Eve party on Copacabana Beach, with barges shooting off 12 minutes of fireworks. Thousands of tourists on cruise ships and charter boats were dropping anchor to watch the show up close, while many were streaming onto the sand to find their seats. More than two million people – most dressed in white to keep the tradition – are expected in Copacabana
American traditions old and new
In New York City, the organization that manages Times Square tested its famous ball drop and inspected the numbers, lights and thousands of crystals of 2025 as part of a tradition since 1907. Musical performances by TLC, Jonas Brothers, Rita Ora and Sophie Ellis-Bextor were scheduled for this year’s party.
The party, covering multiple blocks around the city’s main tourist center and theater, was expected to draw large crowds despite the rain and cold weather.
Las Vegas was set to bid farewell to 2024 with old traditions — and some new ones. His annual eight-minute pyrotechnic show will take place on the Las Vegas Strip, with 340,000 people expected as fireworks are set off from the rooftops of nine casinos.
Nearby, the massive Sphere venue was to feature the countdown to midnight in various time zones for the first time.
