Akm Shehabuddin Kisslu: The New York and the world celebrated the Year 2023 by watching the iconic ball drop at time squire in New York City. New York City ushered in 2023 with a dazzling Saturday night spectacle in iconic Times Square, anchoring New Year’s celebrations across the United States.
More than 100 million Americans will have their eyes on the iconic ball drop.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was given the honor of pushing the button starting the 60-second descent of the Waterford Crystal New Year’s ball, complete with neon lights and fireworks as the crowd roared the final countdown.
The festivities are back to full capacity this year for the first time since the pandemic. Despite the rainy but mild weather, tens of thousands packed into Times Square. People around from the Tri-State Area and across the globe have been gathering at the Crossroads of the World since 9 am to say goodbyes to 2022 and welcome in 2023.
Everyone at least for a day, thoughts focused on possibilities, even elusive ones like world peace, and mustering — finally — a resolve to keep the next array of resolutions.
The ball is 12 feet in diameter, weighs 6 tons, has 32,000 LED lights and nearly 2,700 Waterford crystals that were illuminated, officials said, by a palette of more than 16 million colors which create a wonderful jewel in the sky. At 6 p.m. Saturday, they flipped the switch to lift the ball and at 60 seconds to midnight, the countdown started.
The New Year’s Eve revelers were treated to a number of live performances throughout the night, featuring a lineup of Chelsea Cutler, JVKE, Ava Max, Osmani Garcia, New Edition, Chesca and Duran Duran.
Just before the strike of midnight, Cutler performed a rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” that had thousands singing along as they welcomed 2023.
A few notes of the New Year’s classic ballad “Auld Land Syne” played on the loudspeakers as partiers shared smooches before blasting Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” as confetti rained down.
Last year, a scaled-back crowd of about 15,000 in-person mask-wearing spectators watched the ball descend while basking in the lights and hoopla. Because of pandemic rules, it was far fewer than the tens of thousands of revelers who usually descend on the world-famous square.
The new year began in the tiny atoll nation of Kiribati in the central Pacific, then moved across Russia and New Zealand before heading deeper, time zone by time zone, through Asia and Europe and into the Americas.
In Paris, thousands celebrated on the Champs Elysees, while French President Emmanuel Macron pledged continuing support for Ukraine in a televised New Year’s address. “During the coming year, we will be unfailingly at your side,” Macron said. “We will help you until victory and we will be together to build a just and lasting peace. Count on France and count on Europe.”
Along the River Thames the Big Ben chimed as more than 100,000 revelers gathered to watch a spectacular fireworks show around the London Eye. The display featured a drone light display of a crown and Queen Elizabeth II’s portrait on a coin hovering in the sky, paying tribute to Britain’s longest-serving monarch who died in September.
Brazilian several cities canceled celebrations this year due to concern about the corona virus. Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach welcomed a small crowd of a few thousand for a short fireworks display. New Year’s bash usually drew more than 2 million people to Copacabana before the pandemic.
Turkey’s Istanbul brought in 2023 with street festivities and fireworks. At St. Antuan Catholic Church, dozens of Christians prayed for the New Year and marked former Pope Benedict XVI’s passing. The Vatican announced Benedict died Saturday at age 95.
In Australia, more than 1 million people crowded along Sydney’s waterfront for a multi-million dollar celebration based around the themes of diversity and inclusion. More than 7,000 fireworks were launched from the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and another 2,000 from the nearby Opera House.
The celebrations in New Zealand’s largest city returned after COVID-19 forced them to be canceled a year ago. In Auckland, New Zealand, large crowds gathered below the Sky Tower, where a 10-second countdown to midnight preceded fireworks.
In China, people cautiously looked forward to 2023 after a recent easing of pandemic restrictions unleashed the virus but also signaled a return to normal life. Like many, salesperson Hong Xinyu stayed close to home over the past year in part because of curbs on travel.
“As the new year begins, we seem to see the light,” he said at a countdown show that lit up the towering structures of a former steel mill in Beijing. “We are hopeful that there will be more freedom in the future.”
