World celebrates new year for Gregorian Calendar

January 1, 2006 Millions of people celebrated the arrival of the new year as the clock struck midnight on December 31, 2005, throughout the world's time zones.

Sydney
Sydney, Australia led the way with red lights on the Harbour Bridge and over 80,000 fireworks over the water. Over 1.2 million people were reported to have attended this celebration, making it one of the largest in the world.

New York City
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Times Square to see the historic lowering of the Waterford crystal ball, a tradition began in 1906.

London


London celebrated the New Year at midnight GMT with a ten minute firework display featuring fireworks launched by and from the London Eye observation wheel. The countdown to midnight was marked by a laser lightshow and with photos of olympic heroes projected onto a nearby building. An estimated 200,000 people watched the firework display, up on the previous year, despite a tube strike which closed many Underground stations.

Toronto
Among other notable celebrations across the world was Toronto, which celebrated the new year in Nathan Philips Square. It is the first time the annual event was broadcast to all of Canada.