Published on: 31.12.2022 – 15:41 Modified on 31.12.2022 – 22:27
Goodbye 2022! All eight billion Earthlings began celebrating the transition to 2023 on Saturday, putting a tumultuous year behind them.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Happy New Year! The countdown a few seconds before midnight has already taken place for many inhabitants of the planet, for example in Oceania and Asia, who on the night of Saturday December 31st to Sunday January 1st were the first to celebrate the transition to the year 2023.
For many, New Year’s Eve is an opportunity to banish the memories of the Covid as the virus leaves people’s minds without going away.
>> Also read: Despite everything, twelve pieces of good news that shaped the year 2022
Sydney, “New Year’s Capital of the World”
In Australia, Sydney was one of the first major cities to ring the bell in 2023 and reclaim its title as the ‘New Year’s Capital of the World’ after two years of closures and celebrations being stifled by the Omicron variant.
Australia’s borders have since reopened and more than a million people were expected on Sydney Harbor to witness the launch of more than 100,000 pyrotechnic devices. City officials estimate that nearly half a billion viewers watched the show online or on TV.
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As early as midday, hundreds of people occupied the best seats to see the show. “It’s been a pretty good year for us, getting rid of the Covid is great,” commented David Hugh-Paterson, 52, installed outside the Sydney Opera House.
“If we manage to get everyone on board and start the coming year with new optimism and joy, then we’ve made it,” said fireworks organizer Fortunato Foti.
What to decide with the sentiment going to 2022 when Queen Elizabeth II, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jiang Zemin and Shinzo Abe disappeared?
>> Also read: These personalities who left us in 2022
Japan entered the new year a few hours after Australia and New Zealand. A particularly important festival for the Japanese who go to the temple to pray, explains France 24 correspondent on the spot, Alexis Bregère.
2022, the year associated with the return of war in Europe
In the very last days of 2022, two popes have also left with very different registers: Thursday that of football, the Brazilian Pelé (82 years old), and Saturday the former head of the Catholic Church Benedict XVI. (95 years old).
Global warming has not been reversed, nor has global population growth: the 8 billion mark was exceeded in November.
This year also rhymed with the “Great Resignation,” a post-pandemic phenomenon of massive employee layoffs, a slap in the face at the Academy Awards and the ruin of billionaires swept away by the cryptocurrency crash.
But most importantly, it will forever be associated with the return of the war to Europe with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, nearly 7,000 civilians were killed and 10,000 injured in more than 300 days.
16 million Ukrainians had to leave their homeland. For those who stay, everyday life is interrupted by power outages, Russian bombings and the curfew.
The return of the Covid in China
In London, the traditional New Year’s Eve fireworks display is expected to draw around 100,000 viewers with tickets to the show for the first time since the pandemic.
In Vienna, 1,850 guests prepared for the traditional New Year’s concert of the Philharmonic in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein.
In Asia, Covid has made a resounding comeback in China, while vaccination is allowing the rest of the world to regain some semblance of normal life.
Beijing abandoned its “zero Covid” policy earlier this month, a reversal immediately followed by an explosion in the number of contaminations. Hospitals, like crematoria, may be overwhelmed, but rallies are planned everywhere for the transition to 2023.
>> Also read: In view of the outbreak of Covid-19 in China, there are fears of setbacks in Europe
However, a few hours before the new year, President Xi Jinping wanted to launch an optimistic note: “The light of hope is before us”.
New year, new president. In Brazil, the first day of January rhymes with the return to power of former head of state Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
With AFP