Hardly any fireworks, hardly any parties: New Year’s Eve celebrations around the globe are very different this time due to the coronavirus pandemic. In New York and Wuhan, traditions are not broken – the city of Cologne has thought of something else instead of fireworks.
Billions of people around the world welcome the New Year 2021 on Friday night – under Corona conditions. How that looks then, however, differs greatly.
New Year’s Eve in Germany – mostly without firecrackers
In Germany For the second time since the pandemic began, there has been a kind of lockdown. So that people do not meet in groups on New Year’s Eve and possibly get injured when shooting firecrackers, this year there is what many environmental activists have been demanding for a long time: hardly any fireworks. Because this year there was a general ban on the sale of fireworks in the last days of the year. It was primarily about relieving the hospitals of additional patients, it said to justify the measure. The German Association of Cities called for no fireworks in view of the Corona events – even if you have old stocks or purchases from abroad and want to set off on private property.
Cologne calls for a lighting campaign at home
The town Cologne has thought of something for this special New Year’s Eve, largely without firecrackers and rockets: an alternative lighting campaign with the title “Licht an. Year off. “. The residents of the city are called upon to turn the lights on and off in their apartments at midnight – so to speak, to let it flicker.
Also Germany’s largest New Year’s Eve party in Berlin canceled – including TV-compatible fireworks over the Brandenburg Gate. From there, the ZDF broadcasts a show without an audience. Andrea Kiewel and Johannes B. Kerner welcome music guests like Jürgen Drews and Vicky Leandros. There is also a New Year’s Eve show in the first – from 8:15 p.m. Jörg Pilawa and Francine Jordi accompany the audience into the new year.
And traditions will not be broken in the Corona year 2020 either: at 3:50 pm the first shows “Dinner for one”. Then stands “Dinner for One” in the media library.
It will take 26 hours for 2021 to begin worldwide
It will take 26 hours until it’s official around the world in 2021 – between 11 a.m. CET on December 31 and 1 p.m. CET on January 1. It starts in the island state of Samoa (the new year has already begun), goes through Australia, Asia to Europe, South America, the US east coast, California, Hawaii to the uninhabited islets of Baker Island and Howland Island again in the Pacific.
But not only in Germany, many parties and fireworks have been canceled: other countries around the world will also have moderate celebrations this year – for example in Rio, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam and London. In Sydney There is a huge fireworks display, but no spectators are allowed to come to the harbor. In Paris As in Baden-Württemberg, there is a curfew at night on New Year’s Eve. But there is an online concert by Jean-Michel Jarre as an avatar in the virtual backdrop of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and a pre-recorded donation livestream with star DJ David Guetta in front of the Louvre pyramid.
New York, Moscow and China are still celebrating
In New York the famous “Ball Drop” in Times Square, a falling, shining crystal ball on a pole, is said to only take place in front of a few people instead of the usual thousands.
In Moscow Despite the Corona curfew, there should be a large fireworks display at the Kremlin from 11 p.m. local time (9 p.m. CET). A masked ball also caused a sensation in Belarus.
The almost corona-free Taiwan traditionally plans pyrotechnics for the “Taipei 101” skyscraper in Taipei. In the United Arab Emirates a spectacular fireworks display including a light and laser show is planned for the tallest building in the world, the 828 meter high Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Also in ChinaEvents are planned for the Chinese New Year celebrations in February. Among other things, there should be fireworks in Wuhan – in the outbreak of the corona virus.
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