New Year’s Eve 2026 celebrations kick off as the new year dawns around the world

Around the world, 2026 has begun to arrive. Crowds around the world have gathered to ring in the new year, often accompanied by increased security measures. 

In some communities, the traditional celebrations were shadowed by grief. Hong Kong adjusted its plans in honor of the 161 people who recently died in a a high-rise apartment fire, while public events in Sydney, Australia, paid tribute to the 15 people killed in a terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Dec. 14. 

Here’s how the world is ringing in 2026, in photos. 

Increased security for New Year’s Eve in Europe   

A few hours before midnight arrived in Europe,  Pope Leo XIV gave his final general audience of 2025 in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. He quoted the late Pope Francis, led the congregation in a traditional prayer, and looked back upon the events of 2025. 

In Paris, a New Year’s Eve concert was cancelled because officials feared “unpredictable crowd movements” on the Champs-Elysées, which had been “deemed to not be sized” appropriately for the event. The new year will be celebrated with a video projection on the Arc de Triomphe. 

Increased security and traffic measures, including the mobilization of 10,000 police officers, have been implemented in the French capital. 

London is hosting a ticketed fireworks event in the middle of the city, but Primrose Hill, a popular viewpoint, will be inaccessible, the Metropolitan Police Department said. Law enforcement has been deployed across the city to “provide a reassuring presence, to deter those who might want to take advantage of the crowds to commit crime and to respond decisively to any incidents,” said MPD Commander Nick John, who is charge of the New Year’s Eve policing operation. There will also be increased security on public transportation. 

Berlin residents and tourists marked the end of 2025 by taking selfies and making snowmen in front of the German capital’s cathedral and the iconic Brandenburg Gate. The Berlin TV Tower was nearly invisible amid the falling snowflakes and fog.

In Ukraine, Odesa residents celebrated with a traditional celebration called Malanka. The celebration features traditional costumes and folklore characters, songs, dances, theatrical performances and other rituals meant to bring prosperity in the new year. People in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, ice skated and visited winter markets in the hours before midnight. 

In Greece and Cyprus, officials turned down the volume, replacing traditional fireworks with low-noise pyrotechnics, light shows and drone displays in capital cities. Officials said the change is intended to make celebrations more welcoming for children and pets, particularly animals sensitive to loud noise. 

Solemnity and celebration mix in Australia and New Zealand

Countries in the South Pacific were first to ring in the new year, as midnight struck in New Zealand a full 18 hours before the ball was scheduled to drop in New York City’s Times Square.

In Auckland, New Zealanders welcomed 2026 with a fireworks display launched from the country’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, in a celebration that drew thousands despite rain. The five-minute pyrotechnic display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from various floors of the 787-foot tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s North Island on Wednesday due to dismal weather forecasts.

Australia’s east coast welcomed 2026 just two hours later, but in Sydney, the country’s largest city, celebrations were held under the pall of Australia’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years. Two gunmen targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, killing 15 people in what authorities called an ISIS-inspired antisemitic terror attack.

Officials had said that more than 2,500 officers would be on hand to patrol the area around Sydney’s iconic harbor, the epicenter of New Year’s Eve celebrations. Many were to openly carry automatic rifles, a sight rarely seen in Sydney.

Amid those security measures, thousands thronged to the waterfront to watch a fireworks show centered on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns had urged Sydney residents not to stay away due to fear, saying extremists would interpret smaller crowds at New Year’s Eve festivities as a victory.

“We can’t be in a situation where this horrible, criminal, terrorist event changes the way we live in our beautiful city,” Minns told reporters on Wednesday. “We have to show defiance in the face of this terrible crime and say that we’re not going to be cowered by this kind of terrorism.”

An hour before midnight, the Bondi Beach massacre victims were commemorated with one minute of silence, while images of a menorah were projected onto the bridge’s pylons. The crowd was invited to show solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community by shining their phone lights across the harbor.

Observances across Asia

In Indonesia, one of Australia’s nearest neighbors, cities scaled back New Year’s Eve festivities as a gesture of solidarity with communities devastated by catastrophic floods and landslides that struck parts of Sumatra island a month ago, claiming more than 1,100 lives.

The capital, Jakarta, chose to reduce the usual fanfare, opting instead for subdued celebrations with a calm and reflective program centered on prayers for victims, city Gov. Pramono Anung said last week. But a large crowd still gathered to welcome 2026.

Concerts and fireworks on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali have been canceled and replaced with a cultural arts event featuring 65 groups performing traditional dances.

Hong Kong, too, was to ring in 2026 without the usual spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor, after a massive fire tore through an apartment complex in November and killed at least 161 people.

The city’s tourism board instead hosted a music show featuring soft rock duo Air Supply and other singers in Central, a business district. The facades of eight landmarks were to turn into giant countdown clocks presenting a three-minute light show at midnight.

Chinese President Xi Jinping in a New Year’s Eve address broadcast by state media hailed his country’s technological progress in areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors while renewing threats against Taiwan, which it claims as part of its sovereign territory.

“We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship,” he said.

“The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable,” Xi said, as his country’s military announced the conclusion of large-scale military drills around Taiwan that were condemned by the democratically governed island’s leadership as “highly provocative and reckless.”

In South Korea’s capital, Seoul, a bell tolling was held at the Bosingak Pavilion and fireworks lit up the sky.

Temple bells rang across Japan, and some people climbed mountains to see the year’s first sunrise. Others were eating noodles in a traditional wish for long life because of the noodle’s shape. 

The Philippines welcomed 2026 with fireworks over Manila, where skyscrapers were also outlined in lights.

In India, crowds gathered and monuments were lit up to herald the new year.