New Year around the world
Marking the New Year
Pop a cork, offer a prayer, plunge in the ocean or count the penguins – the world celebrates the New Year.
A Tokyo resident strikes the traditional 108 gongs to drive away the 108 passions cataloged by Buddhism and bring in the New Year in Tokyo on Dec. 31, 1973. (AP Photo/Koichiro Morita)
Russ Brown, superintendent of One Times Square, checks his vintage Mickey Mouse watch a few hours before the illuminated ball in the background was to be hoisted into position atop the building, Dec. 31, 1980. (AP Photo/David Handschuh)
New York City Mayor Ed Koch gives the thumbs up sign as he flips a switch to test the Big Apple Ball, Thursday, Dec. 24, 1981 in New York. (AP Photo/Lederhandler)
Revelers in New York's Times Square to ring in the New Year, Jan. 1, 1942. An estimated half million turned out to celebrate. (AP Photo/Matty Zimmerman)
Revelers celebrate the New Year in the fountains in Trafalgar Square, London, Jan. 1, 1968, as Big Ben chimes midnight. (AP Photo)
These revelers got off to an early start at the Hotel Lexington's Hawaiian room in New York to ring in the New Year, Dec. 31, 1939. Atop the table is Lorraine Bates; pouring champagne into her slipper for Robert Tuton, both of New York. (AP Photo/Tom Sande)
Revelers in fancy dress reach out for hundreds of colored balloons released from the roof of the Royal Albert Hall in London, at midnight, to herald in the new year, on Jan 1, 1959. The occasion was the fiftieth Chelsea Arts Ball which was attended by some five thousand people. (AP Photo/Leslie Priest)
An estimated 4000 London students with their friends and sweethearts crammed into the giant floor of the city's Royal Albert Hall for the new year's eve Chelsea Arts Ball on Dec 30 into Dec. 31, 1949. The ball was held one day early to avoid Sunday dancing. The main theme was the weather. (AP Photo)
Jane Baldasare, from New York, who holds many records for underwater swimming, is all set to open a bottle of bubbly at an under water New Year's Eve party in London, on Dec. 31, 1960. The party was given at the Oasis Baths in Holborn by the London Sub-Aqua Club. (AP Photo/Bell)
Confetti mixed with 75,000 wishes from city school children drifts down onto New York's Times Square early Jan.1, 1993. (AP Photo/Andrew Savulich)
Indian born conductor Zubin Mehta wearing a historical conductors cap blows a horn while conducting the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra during Eduard Strauss' "Bahn frei" ("train ready for departure") Thursday, Jan. 1, 1998, during the traditional New Year's Concert at Vienna's Musikverein. (AP Photo/Ali Schafler)
A Buddhist nun offers prayers with others Saturday, Jan. 1, 2000, as they celebrate the beginning of the new millennium at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
Mexican and foreign tourists raise their hands to the sky, beginning the new year by "charging energy from the sun," while atop the ancient Aztec Indian Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico, Friday, Jan. 1, 1999. (AP Photo/John Moore)
Pope Paul VI blesses the crowd in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. Jan. 1, 1964 from a window of his studio. (AP Photo/Girolamo di Majo)
Baseball player Hank Aaron waves to the crowd as grand marshal of the 1975 Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, Ca., Jan. 1, 1975. Riding with him in the open car is his wife, Billye. (AP Photo)
This is a scene as the Cotton Bowl parade wound its way past an estimated 90,000 spectators who braved threatening weather to witness the New Year’s Day extravaganza on Jan. 1, 1966 in Dallas, Tex. (AP Photo/HTW)
Actor Jimmy Stewart, grand marshal of the 93rd Tournament of Roses Parade, waves to the crowd as he’s accompanied by his wife, Gloria, during the parade in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 1, 1982. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Glen Stafford (30), Oklahoma A & M.Back, goes through a wide hole opened by his teammates to carry the ball to the 2-yard line in the 4th period of the Cotton Bowl Game with Texas Christian University Jan. 1, 1945 in Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/Carl Linde)
Dressed in Japanese kimono, Disney character Minnie Mouse walks hand in hand with two Japanese girls, who are also in Kimono, during the Tokyo Disneyland's New Year opening march in Tokyo on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 1986. (AP Photo/Atsushi Tsukada)
Some 3,600 school children and adults took part in “Kakizome” or the New Year Calligraph ceremony at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo on Jan. 5, 1977. The Kakizome, literally the first writing of the year, is one of the cultural customs Japanese people observe during the New Year holidays, particularly for students at the start of their lessons. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Italy's Aldo Corrieri dives from Rome's Cavour bridge in the river Tiber to celebrate 1998 New Year's day, Thursday, January 1,1998. Corrieri, a veteran of the Roman traditional dive, jumped from a height of approximately 20 meters. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Participants of the 10th Annual Lobster Dip plunge into the frigid Atlantic ocean in Portland, Maine, Thursday, Jan. 1,1998. Over 120 people braved the 38 degree water with an air temperature of 10 degrees to welcome in the New Year. (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach)
Penguins stand to attention as head keeper Reg Hazzard marks the register during the annual New Year's Day stocktaking at Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire, on January 1, 1964. (AP Photo/Sidney Smart)
Mizumi Malfitamo from Italy waves an American flag in celebration as the new year arrives at Times Square in New York City Saturday Jan. 1, 2000. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
Fireworks explode over Madrid's Regional Government building during new year celebrations in Madrid's Puerta del Sol in the early hours of Saturday, January 1, 2000. (AP Photo/Paul White)
South African President Thabo Mbeki, right, and former president Nelson Mandela toast in the new millennium on Robben Island in Cape Town, South Africa, early Saturday, Jan. 1, 2000. (AP Photo / Obed Zilwa)
A Kiribati dancer raises her arms as she welcomes the first sunrise of the new year on Millennium Island, Kiribati, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2000. The sun was covered a huge cloud. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)