Fireworks went up into the sky above the Sydney Opera House, but the Harbor below was a deserted ghost town, a happy getaway for a year not to be missed. A light show did not illuminate Beijing from the top of the TV tower. St Peter’s in Rome was almost empty for vespers. London’s Trafalgar Square, Moscow’s Red Square, Puerta del Sol in Madrid and New York’s Times Square were all blocked.
Good puzzle, 2020. Halo, 2021. While some cities were launching fireworks over empty streets, others, such as London and Singapore, stopped their displays. Paris, Rome and Istanbul were under siege.
A New York countdown ball was dropped on Broadway. But instead of thousands of people shoulder-to-shoulder in Times Square, the audience would have a few dozen pre-selected key workers – including nurses, doctors, a grocery store staff and a pizza delivery man – kept the their families six feet. (2 meters) apart in pens at social distance. Organizers saved Gloria Gaynor to sing her disco classic “I Will Survive”. (Lyrics: “You think I’d cringe? You think I’d lie down and die? Oh no, not me!”)
“It’s going to be, of course, perhaps the most special, the most poignant, New Year’s Eve,” Mayor Bill de Blasio, who pressed the button to start the descent of the crystal ball, told people. statement. “In 2021, we’re going to show people what it’s like to recover, to come back. “With more than 1.7 million people dead and 82 million infected worldwide since New Year’s Eve – but the hope that new vaccines will emerge will help spread the disease – the year has come to an unlikely end. another gin as a souvenir.
Angela Merkel, in her 16th New Year’s Eve speech as German chancellor, said: “I think I’m not doing too much when I say: we’ve never been in the last 15 years. gone so heavy. And we never, in spite of all the worries and a little nostalgia, looked forward to the new one with so much hope. ” Chinese President Xi Jinping said this year’s extraordinary hardship had allowed people to show their resilience: “Only in hard times can confidence and perseverance be demonstrated. It is only after piercing a piece of jade can be nicer. “
‘HELL OF A YEAR’ In the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic broke out a year ago, a large crowd took to the streets including a group of hundreds gathered in front of the old Hankow Customs House building. When his old clock struck at midnight many of them were chewing and releasing balloons into the air.
“I’m really excited,” said Yang Wenxuan, a 20-year-old student and tourist. “I hope I can (in 2021) get my bachelor’s degree and I hope to find a boyfriend.” Police were very present and tight control of the crowd, but the countdown seemed to be proceeding in a calm state.
In Australia, where Sydney’s annual fireworks show is the world’s first major visual show of the new year, gatherings have been banned and internal borders closed. Most people were banned from the city center. “What a year it has been,” said Gladys Berejiklian, Sydney ‘s head of state, New South Wales, which includes Sydney. “Hopefully 2021 will be easier for all of us.”
The virus did not stop North Korea from holding a concert in Pyongyang. State media showed spectators in a face mask filling the main square for concert and fireworks. But in Puerta del Sol in Madrid, where the Spaniards usually count down to midnight by filling their mouth grains at every clock strike, police put up barriers to keep people safe. -mach. Jose Angel Balsa, who is retired at 61, said he would spend the afternoon “with the family, just the four of us at home, holding lots of video calls and hoping this will end. as soon as possible.”
In Britain, under ever-tighter restrictions on combating a new, more contagious form of the virus, official billboards are urging the public to “see the New Year safely at home”. Italian bars and restaurants were closed, and a curfew was imposed for 10pm
The rules prohibited the traditional gathering of thousands of Catholic worshipers for New Year’s Eve vespers at St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope Francis thwarted plans to conduct the service because of the flame of his sciatica, the Vatican said, and a cardinal read the pope’s sermon to a small congregation at a high school altar. At “A la Ville de Rodez”, an upmarket delicatessen in Paris, manager Brice Tapon sent customers home with packs of foie gras, truffles and pate for groups of two or three. Rules prohibit more than six adults from gathering around the dinner table.
One customer, Anne Chaplin, said she would “fill myself with foie gras, champagne and all this food.” “And I’ll stay home.”