Vunderkind
Social Member
Fireworks in London
Do you feel the excitement in the year? Can you feel that tingling sensation, that hum in the air that says this is going to be an exceptional year indeed? Well, if you don’t already, allow us to change that.
Shall we?
All around the world, spectacular and over-the-top celebrations have begun to celebrate the beginning of 2014. As BBC tells it, the people of Auckland, New Zealand, were one of the first people to swing into the festive mood. Meanwhile, Sydney, Australia, did an eye-watering blast of fireworks around Sydney’s Harbour Bridge.
New York's Times Square
Burj Khalifa, Dubai
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Copacabana.
Berlin.
Thousands of people adorned the River Thames, London. In New York, there was the traditional New Year’s Eve countdown and the ball-drop at Times Square. The person who had the honor of pushing the button that dropped the ball onto a rooftop in the square was US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Over the Kremlin, Moscow also had an amazing display of fireworks.
Dubai did a potentially record-clinching firework feat: 500,000 fireworks blasting from 400 locations and synchronized by 100 computers. Aiming for the Guinness World Record, Dubai’s firework display stretched across 30 miles (or 50 km, if you will) of seafront.
Guinness World Record Judges are currently deciding if Dubai broke the world record after all.
Remember the world’s tallest building? The Burj Khalifa? Yeah, that same one. The one in Dubai. It was lit up, too, an impressive column of dazzling light celebrating the new year!
In East Asia, we have Beijing, Singapore and Jakarta with their breath-taking celebrations.
Japan.
North Korea
Fireworks went off in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor. However, Wuhan had to prematurely back out of the fireworks fanfare due to its smog troubles.
Japan had an uber-traditional mix to things, with Shinto priests at the shrines and Japanese families visiting.
Kieve, Ukraine: About 100,000 anti-governmental citizens sang the national anthem at the Independence Square to show their pro-European integration support. There are those who believe they may also have been gunning for a World Record.
Western Europe: Paris and Berlin stole the show by midnight with their spectacular displays…
London’s Big Ben chimed an hour later (time zone hell), to the accompaniment of what is now called the world’s first multi-sensory firework show. There, we saw peach-flavored ‘snow and edible confetti (tasting like Banana) raining upon the crowd of revelers on the River Thames.
Sydney.
Hogmanay is what the New Year is called in Scotland, and it witnessed thousands of people at Edinburgh castle being dazzled by the traditional firework display.
In Dublin, the People’s Procession of Light happened – a celebration with people holding torch-lights.
Nelson Mandela wasn’t forgotten in South Africa, as a free concert in his name was held with fireworks and lasers and he was remembered in the midst of it.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, 1million+ revelers flooded the famous Copacabana beach to see the fireworks light up the bay…
New York is underway….
And in our own Osun, we hear that there were spectacular firework displays in ten towns within the state!
(Image credits: BBC)