CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – This New Year’s Eve is being celebrated like no other in most of the world, with pandemic restrictions limiting crowds and many bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget.
As the clock struck midnight across Asia and the South Pacific, the New Year’s experience mirrored countries’ responses to the virus itself. Some canceled or scaled back festivities, while others without active outbreaks were able to carry on like any other year.
Australia was among the first to ring in 2021 because of its proximity to the international date line. In past years 1 million people crowded Sydney’s harbor to watch fireworks. This time, most watched on television as authorities urged residents to stay home and the most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, battled new outbreaks.
Famous night spots were eerily deserted. The seven minutes of pyrotechnics that lit up the Sydney Harbor Bridge and its surroundings at midnight brought momentary cheer. Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populated city, called off its annual fireworks show.
In South Korea, Seoul’s city government canceled its annual New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony in the Jongno neighborhood for the first time since the event was first held in 1953, months after the end of the Korean War. The ceremony normally draws an estimated 100,000 people.