{"id":721,"date":"2014-01-01T11:55:05","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T11:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=721"},"modified":"2014-01-01T11:55:05","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T11:55:05","slug":"new-year-celebrations-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/new-year-celebrations-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year celebrations around the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NY\"<\/a>Sydney presented a spectacular fireworks show to kick off global new year celebrations Tuesday, the first in a wave of pyrotechnics to usher in 2014 from Hong Kong to world record-chasing Dubai.
\nTons of explosives lit up Australia\u2019s harbor city with fireworks shooting off the Opera House for the first time in more than 10 years as part of the December 31 extravaganza, centered on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
\nSydney lord mayor Clover Moore said the Aus$6 million show ($5.4 million), themed \u201cShine\u201d, was expected to attract 1.6 million spectators to the city\u2019s harborfront, with thousands of visitors already camped out under blue skies early Tuesday to secure a front-row seat.
\n\u201cWe are ready to host the world\u2019s best New Year\u2019s Eve on the world\u2019s most beautiful harbor,\u201d Moore told reporters.
\nThere were a record three fireworks displays at 9pm, 10.30pm and midnight, with Moore promising the spectacle – biodegradable and using recycled water — would be \u201cbigger than ever.\u201d
\nGerman tourists Lena Winkels and Nine Doerr made certain of a prime waterfront position despite the queues.
\n\u201cThis was the last space in the first row so we were very lucky,\u201d she said after getting up at 4am so as not to miss out.
\nDubai is challenging Sydney\u2019s claim to the best show on earth pledging a record-breaking explosion of more than 400,000 fireworks, the biggest the world has ever seen, stretching over 100 kilometers.
\nDubai hopes to break the Guinness World Record for the largest firework display which will spread over the Gulf emirate\u2019s man-made islands and the Burj Khalifa, the world\u2019s tallest tower.
\nNeighboring Kuwait currently holds the mark, set in 2011 with an epic hour-long show of 77,282 fireworks.
\nMajor spectaculars will also light up the Thames in London when Big Ben bongs midnight, Moscow\u2019s Red Square and Kremlin and Berlin\u2019s Brandenburg Gate.
\nIn Rio de Janeiro, authorities are predicting 2.3 million people — a third of them tourists — will crowd Copacabana Beach for fireworks and pop music.
\nThe theme will be romantic, said the city\u2019s tourism secretary, Antonio Pedro Figueira de Mello.
\n\u201cAt one moment of the musicalized fireworks, the music sort of falls, and there we have a kiss in Copacabana, we\u2019ll hear a \u2018smack\u2019, … we\u2019ll have 100 hearts exploding on Copacabana beach to toast for this reveillon of love,\u201d he said.
\nAn expected one million revelers will gather in New York to mark the stroke of midnight and the traditional New Year\u2019s Eve ball-drop over Times Square.
\nCape Town will have a free concert with lasers, fireworks and a special 3D tribute to Nelson Mandela who died on December 5.
\nImages from the anti-apartheid hero\u2019s life will be projected onto City Hall where he gave his first speech after his release from 27 years in prison in 1990.
\nBefore that cities across Asia will hail the New Year with Hong Kong boasting the biggest-ever countdown show for the Chinese city.
\nFireworks will be lit from the top of skyscrapers and a one-kilometer line of barges along Victoria Harbour in a \u201cwish upon a star\u201d tourism board show.
\nSeoul will ring in 2014 with a ritual clanging of the city\u2019s 15th-century bronze bell 33 times, reflecting the ancient practice of marking a new year.
\nIn Singapore, people will flock to Marina Bay financial district for the fireworks while thousands of white spheres will be launched to bob on the water, each containing wishes for 2014 penned by residents.
\nThe Taipei 101, once the world\u2019s tallest skyscraper, will stage the pyrotechnics in Taiwan\u2019s capital, kicking off with a laser beam from a 4.5-metre statue of Spiderman.
\nJakarta has set up 12 city center stages for performances to showcase the vast archipelago\u2019s kaleidoscope of cultures.
\nHowever, 6,500 police will be out to ensure security in and around the Indonesian capital amid warnings that extremists in the Muslim-majority country may target the celebrations, prompting travel warnings from countries including neighboring Australia.
\nTonga, located near the international dateline, will be one of the first nations to greet 2014. The deeply religious Pacific country is holding a week-long prayer festival that culminates with bamboo \u201ccannons\u201d fired into the air.
\nBut not everyone will be celebrating.
\nSaudi Arabia\u2019s religious police warned against partying on New Year\u2019s Eve in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom.<\/p>\n

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