AP
Washington Hispanic:
If ever an end of the year seemed cause for celebration, 2020 could be.
However , the scourge of the coronavirus that dominated the year is also looming over the New Year’s festivities and forces officials around the world to tone it down.
From Times Square of New York to Sydney Harbor, big public explosions are turning into TV shows and digital events. Fireworks displays have been canceled from the Las Vegas Strip to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Even private parties in some places are restricted.
The occasion elicits mixed feelings for people like Cesar Soltero, who was taking photos, and taking stock, in Times Square this week.
«I’m going to celebrate that I’m alive, but I’m not too happy for this year», said Juan, 36, a visiting engineer in Orlando, Florida, after giving up his usual vacation trip to see his family in Mexico.
Simona Faidiga and Alessandro Nunziata strolled by Times Square with their labrador retriever puppy, Maggie, who has given Faidiga a lift after losing her tour guide job.
The Italian couple moved to Miami for new jobs in March, just as the pandemic froze tourism. You work as a sales representative, but you have not returned to work yet. And they are not ready to declare that 2021 will be better, not wanting to curse it.
«I mean, I don’t think it could be worse than 2020 », said Nunziata, who is 27 years.
Days before the ball fell in Times Square, it was clearly not New Year as usual at the Crossroads of the World. There was room to roam the sidewalks that would normally be all but impassable.
Vendors’ carts and window displays at area gift shops boasted some souvenirs themed 2021 as workers set the stage for a celebration that will unfold this year without the usual crowds of entertainers, kissing revelers. Police will blockade the area so viewers cannot take a look.
“It’s almost like an episode of ‘Seinfeld,'” said Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, invoking the “Show about nothing” from the decade of 1990. “This is a ball drop on nothing, where you cannot see, so you can also stay at home.”
The special guests of the event will be lifeguards and essential workers. But they won’t join the mayor on stage to lead the countdown. Instead, each guest will watch from a private, well-spaced area.
The evening’s performances, including disco diva Gloria Gaynor’s singing of the anthem apt for 2020 “I Will Survive” will be aimed at television audiences.
New Year’s Eve will look different around the world after a year in which the virus killed approximately 1.8 million people, including more than 330. 000 in the United States.
Germany banned the sale of fireworks, which residents often put on the streets, and a fireworks display at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate is off.
So are the fireworks over the River Thames in London, where New Year’s Eve also marks the last economic division of Great Britain from the European Union. However, Big Ben, which has been largely silent since 2017 while its clock tower is restored, will ring 12 bongs at midnight.
The Netherlands moved the national countdown from a park in Amsterdam to a football stadium, where Spectators will not be able to enter and the pyrotechnics will be replaced by «electric fireworks».
In Rome, fireworks are still lit, but the usual concerts in public squares have been scrapped in favor of live performances and art installations. Pope Francis will skip his typical December 31 visit to the Vatican World Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square and plans Deliver your New Year’s Day blessing indoors, to prevent crowds from gathering.
Rio de Janeiro debunked fireworks, outdoor concerts, and rooftop parties that draw crowds of revelers dressed in white in the Copacabana neighborhood, where only residents will be allowed in.
New Year’s Eve is one of the busiest days of the year at Paulo Roberto Senna’s Copacabana beach stall, but the 57 year old man said he was fine with the closure: «No money can buy our health! “
The hot dog vendor Fabio Henrique saw it differently.
” They tell us to stay in home, but for those who have no money, where are we going to get the means to live go? », asked Henrique, of 39 years.
In Russia, New Year’s Eve it has been more widely celebrated than Christmas, which is marked on January 7 by the country’s Orthodox Christian majority. Public events have been banned or restricted in many regions. But the country’s so-called New Year’s Eve capital, the city of Kaluga, is luring tourists with a week of festivities, despite pleas from residents to cancel. Officials in Kaluga, 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Moscow, said that will take virus precautions.
Poland has told residents not to circulate between 7 pm on 31 from December until 6 am on January 1. Turkey declared a four-day lockdown starting on New Year’s Eve, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that security forces will inspect hotels for illicit parts.
In the United States, the Christmas morning bombing of the downtown Nashville, Tennessee tourist district led the city to cancel its plan to light fireworks and set off a 2020.
“To say that he would have been deaf would have been an understatement,” said Bruce Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa suggested a new way of observing the holidays by lighting candles to honor COVID victims – 19 and frontline workers and expect a healthy 2021.
Back in New York, the yoga and yoga instructor stress Allison Richard, 39 years, wrote some s New Year’s wishes on confetti to be dropped at midnight in Times Square.
“Freedom”, he wrote, and “satisfaction”, “commitment”, “connection”, ” prosperity ‘and’ love ‘.