New Zealand and the South Pacific island nations are the first places to close 2025.
Auckland became the first major city in the world to welcome the New Year 2026 with a fireworks display in the city center, launched from the Sky Tower - the tallest building in New Zealand. The event took place in rainy weather conditions, partly affecting the festival atmosphere.
However, Kiritimati Island is the first place in the world to welcome the New Year. Kiritimati Island is part of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, located south of Hawaii and northeast of Australia. Kiritimati Island stretches nearly 4,000km from east to west.
Kiribati gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1979. As the largest marine protected area in the South Pacific, the archipelago has a population of about 116,000 people. Although located almost directly south of Hawaii, Kiribati welcomes the New Year 1 day earlier.
When the clock strikes midnight in Auckland, this time is 18 hours earlier than the traditional ball throwing ceremony at Times Square in New York (USA) and 6 hours earlier than Vietnam.
The performance lasted 5 minutes with about 3,500 fireworks fired from different floors of the 240-meter high tower. On New Zealand's North Island, many small-scale community events were cancelled due to rain and thunderstorm forecasts.
Australia welcomes the New Year 2 hours after New Zealand. In Sydney, the festival takes place in the context that public opinion is still shocked by the most serious shooting in nearly 3 decades, when two gunmen attacked a Hanukkah event at Bondi beach, killing 15 people and injuring 40 others.
The central Sydney port area is strictly monitored for security, with the dense presence of armed police. Before New Year's Eve, the organizers spent 1 minute mourning the victims, and called on people to express solidarity by turning on their phones to illuminate the seaport.
Indonesia and Hong Kong (China) are two places that choose to welcome the New Year more quietly. In Indonesia, many cities cut or canceled New Year's celebrations to commemorate the victims killed in the flood and landslide disaster on Sumatra Island.
The capital Jakarta hosts a prayer and contemplation program, while concerts and fireworks in Bali are replaced by traditional art events.
Hong Kong (China) also did not organize the usual fireworks display at Victoria Harbour after a serious fire in November that killed at least 161 people. Instead, the city organized a music program and a light lighting performance in the Central Area.
In many Asian countries, the New Year is celebrated with traditional rituals. In Japan, people gather at temples to hear New Year's Eve bells, while in Seoul, South Korea, bell ringing and countdown ceremonies are held at the Bosingak pavilion.
In a New Year's Eve speech broadcast by state media, General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping praised the country's technological progress in fields such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
In the US, preparations for the New Year's Eve celebration have been urgently carried out in major cities and towns across the country - including New Orleans, where a terrorist attack on New Year's Day last year killed 14 people.
