The world welcomes in the new year
Posted January 1, 2014 12:00 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouverites celebrated the new year at home, at parties, and in the clubs with no large-scale public gatherings being held again this year.
Robson Square and Mount Seymour hosted small-scale festivities to help ring in 2014.
A family-friendly countdown party including fireworks is planned for 2015. The celebration will include a festival along Burrard Landing that will include things like food carts, exhibits, entertainment, and children’s activities. The Olympic Cauldron at Jack Poole Plaza will also be lit.
Meantime, as many as a million people packed into New York’s Times Square to see in the new year – despite bone-chilling cold and ultra-tight security. Every person entering the area was searched and there was an army of police officers lining the sidewalks.
Ryan Seacrest hosted the countdown show from Times Square. Entertainers included Miley Cyrus, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Icona Pop and Blondie.
The celebrations in London were particularly tasty; the fireworks in the British capital were packed with peach-flavored snow, edible banana confetti and orange-scented bubbles, allowing people to feast with more than just their eyes.
In Dubai, organizers think they staged the world’s largest fireworks display. The skyline was a canvas for a dazzling 30-minute capping off with six minutes of fireworks that engulfed the city’s man-made, palm-shaped island, with its fronds and trunk shimmering in thousands of lights.
In Kiev, at least 100,000 Ukrainians sang their national anthem in a sign of support for integration with Europe. The city has been the scene of massive protests for more than a month, triggered by President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to ditch a key deal with the European Union.
Volgograd in Russia remains jittery after two suicide bombings in two days killed 34 people. City authorities canceled mass events for New Year’s Eve, and asked residents not to set off fireworks.
Pope Francis has used his traditional end-of-the-year prayer service to urge people to ask themselves if they spent the year helping others, or themselves. He asked people to reflect if they used 2013 to make the places where they live more livable and welcoming.
Citing Rome as an example, Francis said the city is full of tourists, but also of refugees.
