As the countdown to the New Year moves around the globe, spectacular events were happening all around, mostly characterized by grand fireworks displays. The first country to welcome 2014 was Samoa, located in the South Pacific Ocean, separated from American Samoa by 64 kilometers of ocean and 13-hour time difference. American Samoa, Midway Islands, Niue, Palmyra Atoll, Kingman Reef and Jarvis Island are the last areas to welcome the New Year.
Australia and New Zealand
An hour after Samoa welcomed the New Year, New Zealand and Australia welcomed 2014 with loud and colorful fireworks. Australia has been staging spectacular pyrotechnic extravaganza for several years now, and again did not disappoint the more than one million people that gathered on the Sydney Harbor to get a close look at this year’s annual event, dubbed as Shine. It is a reflection of the city and the Sydneysiders, according to organizers. The show lasted for 12 minutes, with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House bursting with bright lights and hundreds of colors at the stroke of midnight. For the first time the fireworks were launched from the four sails of the iconic Sydney Opera House. Billions of people around the world watch this great show annually. At neighboring New Zealand, the spectacular fireworks displays came from the top of the Sky Tower in Auckland.
Asia
A few hours later, parts of China, Korea and Japan had their turn at welcoming the New Year. North Korea treated its citizens, visitors and spectators to a wonderful fireworks display which lit up the Taedong River and Juche Tower in Pyongyang. Hong Kong residents watched the spectacular display over Victoria Harbour. Beijing presented their own light shows in parts of the Great Wall of China near Beijing and in Shanghai Bund’s waterfront.
New York
Millions of revellers in New York eagerly awaited the 60-second countdown after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushed the button that started the descent of the giant New York Times Square ball, made of 2,688 crystals and thousands of LED lights.
Europe
More than a quarter million spectators eagerly lined up along the banks of the Thames River as the London Eye became a giant Catherine Wheel for the New Year event. Londoners were equally surprised by the peach-flavored snow, the banana-flavored confetti that rained down on them and the orange-scented and flavored bubbles. Russia’s Kremlin was brightly lit by the fireworks show the city mounted while the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin shone in different colors as fireworks were set off. Paris used the Eiffel Tower as its backdrop for its light show.
Dubai
The most spectacular of all the events staged to welcome 2014 is the one that the city of Dubai presented to thousands of spectators. Their six-minute fireworks show surpassed the record held by Kuwait two years in a row. The city hopes that this year’s spectacle will achieve the world record and officials of Guinness Book of Records were there to ascertain that it is indeed a world record. Whatever the outcome, the show, controlled by 100 computers to synchronize the 400 firing stations located all over the city, orchestrated the firing of 500,000 fireworks that lit up the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. The total show lasted a full 30 minutes, with a huge fireworks-lighted falcon flying over Dubai’s palm-shaped artificial island. The organizers aimed to make the fireworks form a sunrise and the United Arab Emirates flag.
Image attributed to FreeDigitalPhotos.net satit_srihin
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