{"id":260928,"date":"2026-01-01T02:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T02:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/260928\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T02:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T02:50:16","slug":"world-rings-in-2026-with-fireworks-and-a-show-of-solidarity-in-sydney-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/260928\/","title":{"rendered":"World rings in 2026 with fireworks and a show of solidarity in Sydney \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Wednesday \u200bturned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging 2025 and expressed hopes for the \u200dnew year to come.<\/p>\n

Midnight arrived first on the islands closest to the International Date Line in the Pacific \u200dOcean, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tonga and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

In Australia, Sydney began 2026 with a spectacular fireworks display, as per tradition. Some 40,000 pyrotechnic effects stretched 7 km across buildings and barges along its harbour \u200cand featured a waterfall effect from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. <\/p>\n

This year, it was held under an enhanced police \u2060presence, weeks after gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish event in the city. Organisers \u200cheld \u200ba \u200dminute\u2019s silence for the victims of the attack at 11 pm local time, with the Harbour Bridge lit up in white and a menorah – a symbol of Judaism – projected onto its pylons.<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY,SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – DECEMBER 31: People enjoy the New Year’s Eve firework displays at Opera House on December 31, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. Thousands turned out to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Sydney, as the Harbour Bridge lit up with fireworks. (Photo by George Chan\/Getty Images) \"TheThe figure of a menorah is displayed on the pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to reflect on the tragic Bondi Beach shooting attack before New Year’s Eve midnight fireworks display in Sydney on December 31, 2025. (Photo by Saeed KHAN \/ AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a tragic end \u2060to the year for our city, we hope that New Year\u2019s Eve will provide an \u2060opportunity to come together and look with \u2060hope for a peaceful and happy 2026,\u201d Sydney\u2019s lord mayor Clover Moore said ahead of the event.<\/p>\n

\"FireworksFireworks light up the midnight sky over the Lotte World Tower, South Korea’s tallest building in Seoul during New Year’s Day celebrations on January 1, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je \/ AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

In South Korea, a bell tolling and countdown ceremony saw the end of 2025 in Bosingak Pavilion, while North Korea welcomed 2026 by putting on a fireworks display at Kim Il Sung Square in the capital city of Pyongyang.<\/p>\n

\"AA countdown celebration at the Juyongguan Great Wall on January 1st, 2026 in Beijing, China. Photograph: Lintao Zhang\/Getty Images \"CrowdsCrowds gather in Taiwan for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Photograph: EPA \"AnAn illuminated sea promenade during New Year’s Eve in Mumbai. Photograph: Punit PARANJPE \/ AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

In Croatia, revels got off to \u200dan early start. Since 2000, the town of Fuzine has held its countdown at noon, a tradition that has since spread across the country. Crowds cheered, toasted each other with champagne and danced to music – all in the middle of the day. Some brave souls in Santa hats took a plunge into the icy waters of Lake Bajer.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, preparations got under way for the more traditional midnight \u200ctoast. In subzero temperatures \u200cin New York, organisers began putting up security barriers and stages ahead of the crowds that will flock to Times Square for the annual ball drop. – Reuters<\/p>\n

\"SouthSouth Korean Buddhist devotees pray at the Jogyesa temple in Seoul on New Year’s Eve \"RevellersRevellers in Amritsar, India, get ready to usher in 2026. Photograph: Narinder Nanu\/Getty \"WomenWomen pose for photos by Hoan Kiem Lake next to a New Year installation in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photograph: Nhac Nguyen\/Getty \"ChildrenChildren perform a traditional Balinese dance to release the sun of 2025, and to welcome the sun of 2026, in Denpasar, Bali. Photograph: Sonny Tumbelaka\/Getty <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Wednesday \u200bturned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging 2025 and expressed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1128,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,84521,5790,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-260928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-new-year","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115817574104931293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}