Australia and New Zealand have already celebrated the passage in 2023

Fireworks have already lit up the skies in Australia and New Zealand to mark the start of the new year.

Part of the world is already in 2023. New Zealand and Eastern Australia celebrated the New Year with their usual fireworks displays. New Zealand was the first to celebrate the New Year with a light show in its capital, Auckland.

In particular, the fireworks were sent near the Sky Tower, an event that had to be canceled last year due to restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sydney Opera House in the spotlight

In Australia, the famous Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge are lit up in blue, red and purple colors. This year’s show, inspired by “Earth, Sea, and Sky,” is paying homage to the “Guardians of the Earth,” according to the city.

The Harbor Bridge is also decorated in rainbow colors. Next February, the city will host World Pride, an event that takes place every two years in a different country and aims to promote issues related to the LGBT community.

And so Sydney regained the title of “New Year’s Eve Capital of the World” after two years of lockdown and festivities stifled by the Omicron variant. The Australian border has since reopened and more than 1 million people in Sydney Harbor are expected to witness more than 100,000 fireworks being fired.

City officials estimate that nearly half a billion viewers will watch the show online or on television. By midday, hundreds of people had already occupied the best spots to watch the parade. David Hugh Patterson, 52, commented in front of the Sydney Opera House: “It’s been a good year for us and getting rid of Covid is great.”

“If we can get everyone together to the party and approach the coming year with renewed optimism and joy, we will succeed,” explained fireworks organizer Fortunato Foti.