{"id":314,"date":"2021-01-04T18:58:42","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T18:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwmedia.news\/?p=314"},"modified":"2021-01-04T18:58:42","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T18:58:42","slug":"new-years-eve-muted-celebrations-for-london-and-new-york-but-australia-and-nz-welcome-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/?p=314","title":{"rendered":"New Year&#8217;s Eve: Muted celebrations for London and New York, but Australia and NZ welcome in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>New Year&#8217;s Eve celebrations were muted by coronavirus restrictions in London and New York, while countries including Australia and New Zealand welcomed in 2021 with impressive firework displays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Big Ben ushered in 2021 with its chimes in an eerily subdued London, which would typically be packed with swathes of people waiting to watch a dazzling display of fireworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bars and pubs that in past years would be filled with people singing Auld Lang Syne sat empty and silent across the whole country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Edinburgh, where Hogmanay is one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, only small groups of people were seen in streets that would typically be thronging with revellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/20\/12\/768x432\/skynews-new-year-edinburgh_5223575.jpg?bypass-service-worker&amp;20201231232648\" alt=\"An empty Princes Street in Edinburgh\"\/><figcaption>An empty Princes Street in Edinburgh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There was also a crackdown on mass gatherings in New York, with police officers deployed in Times Square to turn away party-goers over concerns of the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ball dropped like always in Times Square, but police fenced off the site synonymous with New Year&#8217;s Eve to prevent crowds of any size from gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/21\/01\/768x432\/skynews-new-york-times-square_5223611.jpg?bypass-service-worker&amp;20210101050101\" alt=\"Revellers sit in their pods in Times Square on New Year&#39;s Eve \"\/><figcaption>Revellers sit in their pods in Times Square on New Year&#8217;s Eve<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/21\/01\/768x432\/skynews-times-square-nyc_5223612.jpg?bypass-service-worker&amp;20210101050329\" alt=\"Times Square sits empty ahead of the New Year&#39;s Eve 2021 celebration \"\/><figcaption>Times Square sits empty ahead of the New Year&#8217;s Eve 2021 celebration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, other parts of the world celebrated in their near-usual style<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Year&#8217;s Eve celebrations were muted by coronavirus restrictions in London and New York, while countries including Australia and New Zealand welcomed in 2021 with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316,"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsarea.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}