New Year's Eve 2012: Celebrations around the world

by cricfan | December 31, 2011 at 09:02 pm

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Revellers around the world are celebrating the end of 2011 and are seeing in 2012.
A multi-million dollar firework display heralded in the new year in Sydney, while the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, was illuminated in Dubai.

Celebrations were held across Europe, with some 250,000 gathering to watch fireworks over the River Thames.

In Times Square in New York, crowds watched Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Lady Gaga count down to midnight.

The traditional ball, lit this year with 30,000 lights, descended a high pole as the New Year began and Frank Sinatra's New York, New York was played.

'Full of smiles'
The first places to celebrate were Samoa and Tokelau after they jumped across the international dateline.

As the clock struck midnight at the end of 29 December, the two South Pacific island nations fast-forwarded to 31 December, missing out on 30 December entirely.

Tourists and locals partied throughout Saturday as Samoa revelled in being the first country to ring in the New Year, rather than the last.

In Tokyo, people released helium balloons in front of the Tokyo Tower at midnight with notes attached listing their hopes for 2012.

Many wished for a better year, following the earthquake and tsunami that brought devastation to the north-east of Japan in 2011.

"I hope it will be a year full of smiles. For those who are crying now, I hope they'll be smiling too," said 21-year-old Horie Soichiro.

Days after the death of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, the authorities issued a New Year message urging people to back his son and successor, Kim Jong-un.

"The whole party, the entire army and all the people should possess a firm conviction that they will become human bulwarks and human shields in defending Kim Jong-un unto death," it said.

Sydney's Harbour Bridge has stolen the show with a massive pulsating pyrotechnic rainbow and a cascading golden waterfall as Australians partied into the new year.The rainbow, a symbol of hope and renewal in keeping with the theme of a Time to Dream, formed the centrepiece of the spectacular $6.5 million show, in which seven tonnes of pyrotechnics rocketed into a perfectly clear night sky.More than 1.5 million people watched from vantage points around the harbour as multicoloured clouds, bow ties, spirals, hearts, smiley faces and rectangles turned the sky into a riot of light and colour.

An estimated global audience of more than one billion watched on television.Creative director Marc Newson's theme - which he said came with a message of hope for a better year ahead - was popular among those in the Botanic Gardens."It's absolutely inspiring, it's given me a lump in my throat," Miranda Fiske said.