SYDNEY/SEOUL/NEW YORK — Ten ... nine ... eight ... As Wednesday turned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging ?2025 and expressed hopes for the New Year to come.

Midnight arrived first on the islands closest to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tonga and New Zealand.

One of the last centers to greet the New Year was New York, where revelers celebrated in subzero temperatures and those in Times Square watched the traditional ball drop at midnight.

In Australia, Sydney began 2026 with a spectacular fireworks display, as per tradition. Some 40,000 pyrotechnic effects stretched 7 kilometers across buildings and barges in its harbor and featured a waterfall effect from the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

This year, it was held under an enhanced police presence, weeks after gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish event in the city. Organizers held a minute's silence at 11 pm for the victims of the attack.

"After a tragic end to the year for our city, we hope that New Year's Eve will provide an opportunity to come together and look with hope for a peaceful and happy 2026,"Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore said ahead of the event.

In Seoul, thousands gathered at the Bosingak bell pavilion, where a bronze bell was struck 33 times at midnight — a tradition rooted in Buddhist cosmology, symbolizing the 33 heavens. The resonant chimes are believed to drive away misfortune and welcome peace and prosperity for the year ahead.

On Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, locals welcomed the New Year in warmer weather with a music and fireworks party known as "Reveillon". Organizers were hoping to beat their 2024 Guinness World Record for the biggest New Year's Eve celebration.

Confetti, ball drop

In New York's Times Square, 2026 was welcomed with fireworks and confetti as revelers had waited for hours to see the 5,600-kilogram ball drop. Moments after the ball descended down a pole it rose again, sparkling in red, white and blue, to mark the United States' upcoming 250th birthday.

A few kilometers away in a decommissioned subway station, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor during a private event just after midnight Thursday.

Greece and Cyprus turned down the volume, replacing traditional fireworks with low-noise pyrotechnics in capitals. Officials said the change was intended to make celebrations more welcoming for children and pets.

There was disaster in the Swiss resort town of Crans-Montana, where a fire at a bar in the early hours of the new year killed several dozen people and injured around 100 others.

"Several dozen people are presumed to have died," said Frederic Gisler, police commander in Valais Canton, southwestern Switzerland.

Work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families but "that will take time and for the time being it is premature to give you a more precise figure", Gisler said at a news conference.

Agencies via Xinhua