From Sydney to Mumbai to Paris and Rio de Janeiro, communities around the world have welcomed 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges.
The New Year’s Eve ball dropped in soggy Times Square, where thousands of revellers stuck it out in heavy rain to celebrate the start of 2025 in New York City.
Countries in the South Pacific Ocean were the first to ring in the new year, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square.
Auckland was the first major city to celebrate, with thousands thronging downtown or climbing the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point.
Conflict muted acknowledgements of the start of 2025 in places including the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
American Samoa will be among the last to welcome 2025, 24 hours after NZ.
A few hours after Auckland, fireworks blasted off the Sydney Harbour Bridge as more than one million people gathered around the Australian city's iconic harbour for the celebration.
British pop star Robbie Williams led a singalong with the crowd.
In New York City, crowds cheered and couples kissed when the ball weighing almost 5.4 metric tons and featuring 2688 crystal triangles descended a pole in Times Square.
The celebration included musical performances by TLC and Jonas Brothers.
The revelry culminated with a dance party and a carpeting of soggy confetti as attendees left singing along to Frank Sinatra’s version of New York, New York.
Las Vegas’ pyrotechnic show on the Strip was expected to attract 340,000 people as fireworks were launched from the rooftops of casinos.
Much of Japan shut down ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday, as temples and homes underwent a thorough cleaning.
The upcoming year of the snake in the Asian zodiac is heralded as one of rebirth - alluding to the reptile’s shedding skin.
In South Korea, celebrations were cut back or cancelled during a period of national mourning following the Sunday crash of a Jeju Air flight at Muan that killed 179 people.
Chinese state media covered an exchange of new year’s greetings between leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a reminder of growing closeness between two leaders who face tensions with the West.
Xi told Putin their countries would “always move forward hand in hand”, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
In India, thousands of revellers in the financial hub of Mumbai flocked to the city's bustling promenade facing the Arabian Sea.
In Sri Lanka, people gathered at Buddhist temples to light oil lamps and incense sticks and pray.
In Dubai, thousands attended a fireworks show at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper and in Nairobi, Kenya, scattered fireworks were heard.
Rome’s traditional New Year’s Eve festivities have an additional draw: the start of Pope Francis’ Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration projected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to the Eternal City in 2025.
Paris capped a momentous 2024 with its traditional countdown and fireworks extravaganza on the Champs-Elysees.
The city’s emblematic Arc de Triomphe monument was turned into a giant tableau for a light show that celebrated the city's landmarks and the passage of time, with whirring clocks.
London rang in 2025 with a pyrotechnic display along the River Thames.
With a storm bringing bitter weather to other parts of the United Kingdom, however, festivities in Edinburgh, Scotland, were cancelled.
In Switzerland and some other places, people embraced the cold, stripping and plunging into the water in freezing temperatures.
Rio de Janeiro threw Brazil’s main New Year’s Eve bash on Copacabana beach, with barges shooting off 12 straight minutes of fireworks.
Thousands of tourists on cruise ships and charter boats witnessed the show up close, while many more streamed onto the sand to find their spot.
The crowd on Copacabana was expected to exceed two million people - most decked out in white to keep with tradition.
They packed together to enjoy concerts by Brazilian music greats Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethania and Ivete Sangalo and Brazil’s biggest pop star, Anitta.
