Happy New Year 2024 highlights: Fireworks lit up skies as world entered 2024 (2024)

Fireworks illuminated skies over Paris, Rio and Sydney to celebrate the entry to 2024, while rockets and strikes marked the year's earliest hours in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine.

Much of the world's population -- now more than eight billion -- is hoping to shake off high living costs and global tumult in 2024, which will bring elections concerning half the world's population and the Paris Olympics.

But with the new year barely started there were already ominous signs: at the stroke of midnight in Gaza a barrage of rockets was fired towards Israel in a twisted reflection of the fireworks lighting up night skies elsewhere around the world.

Here's WION's rolling gallery on New Year celebrations worldwide.

The New Year ball has dropped in New York's iconic Times Square.

India's popular tourist spot Shimla on New Year 2024 recorded more than 60 per cent occupancy till Sunday evening, which, as per officials, was "the lowest in the last 40 years".

Talking to PTI, Shimla Hotel and Tourism Stakeholders Association president M K Seth said that this is even lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Shimla had recorded more than 80 per cent occupancy on New Year.

Greece welcomed 2024 with a spectacular and colourful fireworks display that lit up the ancient monuments of the Acropolis in Athens.

Hundreds of people were celebrating New Year's Eve in the Greek capital, including in its central Syntagma square.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including tourists from abroad, welcomed theNewYearon the Champs Elysées in Paris on Monday (January 1).

The French ushered in theyearof the Paris Olympic Games with a giant celebration, leading up to the traditional fireworks display over the Arch of Triumph.

The festivities took place under tight security measures put in place by French authorities, with around 90,000 police deployed across the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a resolute New Year's address on Sunday (Dec 31st), pledged to unleash formidable "wrath" against Russian forces throughout 2024. The leader of the war-torn nation vowed this, undeterred by what he said were attempts to "undermine" support for Kyiv.

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Berlin welcomed the New Year with fireworks over the German capital’s landmark, the Brandenburg Gate, early on Monday (January 1).

Around 65,000 people gathered on the 17. Juni boulevard on the western side of the Gate to celebrate the start of 2024.

Talking to Reuters, one reveller saidhe wished for the situation “in Ukraine and elsewhere” to become more peaceful, while a young Dutch tourist thought it was also time to look forward to “the good things that happen.”

The Brandenburg Gate once separated East and West Berlin until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

People across the world welcomed a new year with enthusiasm and hopes that 2024 will come with peace, prosperity and happiness as people have wrapped up 2023 — a year which was defined by wars and climate crises.

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Taiwan welcomed theyear2024 with spectacular fireworks from its Taipei 101 tower, as the clock struck midnight on Monday (January 1).

The display around the landmark skyscraper standing at 508 metres (1,667 feet) lasted for 300 seconds and included more than 16,000 explosions, while for the first time incorporating Japanese fireworks.

According to Taiwan's foreign ministry, the theme of thisyear'sNewYear's Eve fireworks was "Colourful World” to symbolise a return to normal life in 2024, afteryears of pandemic hindered tourism to the country.

Held for the first time in 2003, the Taipei 101 fireworks display has become one of the most watched events on television in Taiwan and is known for drawing a huge crowd of spectators to the streets everyyear.

Here comes 2024! May #Taiwan’s🇹🇼 #Taipei101 ravishing fireworks augur a bright & beautiful year for all of us! (🎥Taipei 101)
▶️Livestream: https://t.co/QiBcrr3Jty pic.twitter.com/e3ZdMzTnh9

— 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) December 31, 2023

As they turn from a year that could barely have brought more bitter hardship after 12 weeks of a pulverising Israeli assault, people in Gaza have little hope that 2024 will bring much relief. In Rafah on Gaza's border with Egypt, which has become the biggest focal point for Palestinians fleeing other parts of the enclave, people on Sunday were more preoccupied with trying to find shelter, food and water than by the new year.

"In 2024 I wish to go back to the wreckage of my home, pitch a tent and live there," said Abu Abdullah al-Agha, a middle aged Palestinian man whose house in Khan Younis was destroyed and who lost a young niece and nephew in an Israeli air strike.

"I wish for our children to live in peace and security, to go back to school, back to university, for workers to go back to work and find a source of income," he added.

Pakistan caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar imposed a ban on New Year celebrations in the country in a bid to express solidarity with the people of Gaza amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia would "never back down" in his New Year's Eve address, praising his country's military personnel without explicitly mentioning the conflict in Ukraine.

"We have repeatedly proved that we are able to solve the most difficult tasks and will never retreat, because there is no force that can separate us," Putin said.

The 9pm "family fireworks" explode over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Sydney on December 31, 2023.

Devotees throng Madurai's Meenakshi Amman Temple in India's Tamil Nadu on the last day of the year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Sunday that China would "surely be reunified" as he addressed the nation in a speech marking the New Year, state media reported.

"All Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," state news agency Xinhua said.

Auckland welcomed 2024 with a fireworks display over its tallest building, which is the Sky Tower.