New Year’s Eve celebrations: The world welcomes the new year

Status: 01/01/2023 06:38 a.m

Germany welcomed the year 2023 with unusually warm weather. Many people celebrated the turn of the year with fireworks for the first time in two years. In Berlin there was another New Year’s Eve party with an audience.

The new year 2023 has begun. All over Germany, people celebrated the turn of the year at midnight more exuberantly than the last two times – now without corona restrictions for parties. It was exceptionally mild at night and during the day, with double-digit temperatures in many places.

In four places, the German weather service even measured 20 degrees and more – it was warmest on New Year’s Eve in Wielenbach in Upper Bavaria with 20.8 degrees around 2 p.m. Up to 20 degrees are also expected in the southwest on New Year’s Day.

Fireworks allowed again

Unlike in the past two years, when there was a ban on the sale of fireworks due to the pandemic and to relieve hospitals of additional patients, this time firecrackers were available to buy again before New Year’s Eve. Therefore, more emergencies were expected.

The traditional party at the Brandenburg Gate was smaller than before – with an audience of a few thousand people. At midnight there was no fireworks, but a light show. Shortly before, the Scorpions played a new version of their anthem “Wind of Change”. Because of Russia’s war against Ukraine, they slightly adjusted the text in the spring.

Increased emergency response

Fire brigade and police deployed nationwide to a large number of operations. Already on Friday and during the day there had been reports from several regions of Germany about injuries, fires and riots. As the capital’s police wrote on Twitter, police officers and firefighters were “massively attacked with firecrackers” when extinguishing a burning car. “We are now securing the firefighting with additional emergency services.”

In Germany, before New Year’s Eve, there was again a debate about the Sense and nonsense of firecrackers in the face of climate protection as well as noise, air pollution and aggression as well as animal welfare.

The residents of the South Sea island of Kiritimati were the first in the world to start the new year on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. German time. Samoa, which abolished daylight saving time this year, followed for the first time an hour later – at the same time as New Zealand and Tonga. At 2 p.m. German time, the traditional giant fireworks were ignited in Sydney, Australia, at the turn of the year. Later, for example, there were fireworks at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world.

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