World welcomes 2026 with fireworks, remembrance and hope - See pics

Visuals from celebrations

On Tuesday, people across continents bid farewell to a turbulent 2025 and welcomed the arrival of the new year with celebrations marked by reflection, remembrance and hope.

The New Year rang in first across islands near the International Date Line in the Pacific, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tonga and New Zealand, where midnight arrived hours before much of the rest of the world.

In Australia, Sydney ushered in 2026 with its iconic fireworks display. Around 40,000 pyrotechnic effects lit up the skyline, stretching nearly 7 km across buildings and barges along Sydney Harbour. The show also featured a cascading waterfall effect from the Sydney Harbour Bridge, continuing a long-standing New Year’s Eve tradition.

This year’s celebrations, however, took place under heightened security, following a deadly attack weeks earlier in which gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish event in the city. Organisers observed a minute’s silence at 11 p.m. local time to honour the victims. During the tribute, the Harbour Bridge was illuminated in white, and a menorah, a symbol of Judaism, was projected onto its pylons.

“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.

New Year celebrations

In Europe, celebrations took on a different rhythm. In Croatia, New Year festivities began much earlier in the day. The town of Fuzine continued its unique tradition, started in 2000, of holding the New Year countdown at noon.

The custom has since spread to other parts of the country. Crowds gathered to cheer, raise champagne toasts and dance to music in daylight, while some participants, wearing Santa hats, braved the freezing waters of Lake Bajer for a symbolic plunge.

Elsewhere, preparations were underway for more conventional midnight celebrations. In New York City, where temperatures dipped below zero, organisers set up security barricades and stages in anticipation of massive crowds expected to gather in Times Square for the annual ball drop.

In South Korea, thousands assembled at Seoul’s Bosingak bell pavilion, where a large bronze bell is struck 33 times at midnight. The ritual, rooted in Buddhist cosmology and symbolising the 33 heavens, is believed to ward off misfortune and usher in peace and prosperity for the year ahead.

Across time zones, the start of 2026 was marked by a shared desire to leave behind the challenges of the past year and step forward with renewed optimism.