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Countries across the world ring in the new year
By
Giulia Heyward
Published December 31, 2022 at 3:27 PM CST
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Updated January 1, 2023 at 12:57 AM ET
The year 2022 turned to 2023 in time zones across the world, starting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Some of the first people who celebrated 2023 live in Kiribati, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, with a population of less than 122,000 people.
Australia, which is one of the first big countries to begin the year, started 2023 with a bang — 7,000 fireworks were launched from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and another 2,000 from the nearby Sydney Opera House, The Associated Press reported.
"Happy New Years, Australia, wishing you all the best for the year ahead," the country's prime minister, Anthony Albanese, tweeted.
Here's a look at how people are celebrating the new year in various countries.
Australia
Japan
Philippines
India
Indonesia
Thailand
Pakistan
Kenya
Ivory Coast
Ukraine
Air raid sirens went off as Russian missiles rained down on several cities on New Year's Eve. The streets of Kyiv were deserted by midnight, the AP reported, as the city remains under an 11 p.m. curfew. Still, some managed to gather earlier.
France
Germany
U.K.
Brazil
U.S.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Giulia Heyward is a weekend reporter for Digital News, based out of New York. She previously covered education and other national news as a reporting fellow at The New York Times and as the national education reporter at Capital B News. She interned for POLITICO, where she covered criminal justice reform in Florida, and CNN, as a writer for the trends & culture team. Her work has also been published in The Atlantic, HuffPost and The New Republic.