China, New Zealand, Australia enter 2024 with fireworks (PHOTOS)

As major countries of the world await with eagerness to celebrate 2024, a few nations have already begun their celebrations.

China, New Zealand, Australia and Kiribati were one of the first nations to ring in 2024 as ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza cast a pall over celebrations and heightened tensions across parts of the world.

Residents of Auckland welcomed in the new year with a fireworks display over Sky Tower, New Zealand’s tallest structure.

Jubilant crowds began bidding farewell to the hottest year on record Sunday, closing a turbulent 12 months marked by clever chatbots, climate crises and wrenching wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

The world’s population — now more than eight billion — will see out the old and usher in the new, with many hoping to shake the weight of high living costs and global tumult.

In Sydney, the self-proclaimed “New Year’s capital of the world”, more than a million partygoers packed the harbour foreshore, with city officials and police warning that all vantage points were full.

Sydneysiders gathered through the day at prominent sites, defying uncharacteristically dank weather, and they were not disappointed when the Harbour Bridge and other landmarks were garlanded in light and colour by eight tonnes of fireworks.

Sydney’s spectacular show lit the fuse on 2024, a year that will bring elections concerning half the world’s population and a summer Olympiad celebrated in Paris.

Sequence of New Year Celebrations

New Zealand – December 31, 11:00 am GMT (4.30 pm IST)

Australia – December 31, 1:00 pm GMT (6.30 pm IST)

Japan, South and North Korea – December 31, 3:00 pm GMT (8.30 pm IST)

China, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines – December 31, 4:00 pm GMT (9.30 pm IST)

Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia – December 31, 5:00 pm GMT (10.30 pm IST)

UAE, Oman, Azerbaijan – December 31, 8:00 pm GMT (January 1, 1.30 am IST)

Greece, South Africa, Cyprus, Egypt, Namibia – December 31, 10:00 pm GMT (January 1, 3.30 am)

Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Morocco, Congo, Malta – December 31, 11:00 pm GMT (January 1, 4.30 am IST)

UK, Ireland, Portugal – January 1, 00:00 GMT (5.30 am IST)

Brazil, Argentina, Chile – January 1, 3 am GMT (8.30 am IST)

Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Venezuela, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands – January 1, 4 am GMT (9.30 am IST)

US East Coast (New York, Washington DC, etc), Peru, Cuba, Bahamas – January 1, 5 am (10.30 am IST)

Mexico, parts of Canada and the US – January 1, 6 am GMT (11.30 am IST)

US West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc) – January 1, 8 am GMT (1.30 pm IST)

Hawaii, French Polynesia – January 1, 10 am GMT (3.30 pm IST)

Samoa – January 1, 11 am GMT (4.30 pm IST)

Baker Island, Howland Island – January 1, 12 pm GMT (5.30 pm IST)