(Sydney) Farewell 2022: the eight billion Earthlings are preparing on Saturday to leave behind them an eventful year, between the war in Ukraine, inflation and the world coronation of Lionel Messi, before fully entering 2023.
For many, New Year’s Day will be a time to drive away the memories of COVID-19, as the virus fades away, but does not fade away.
Untie his purse, too, and put aside months of sobriety forced by the pandemic and inflation records all around the globe.
In Australia, Sydney will be one of the first major cities to ring the bell in 2023, reclaiming its title of “New Year’s Eve capital of the world” after two years of closure and festivities stifled by the Omicron variant.
Australia’s borders have since reopened and more than a million people are expected in Sydney Harbor to witness the launch of more than 100,000 pyrotechnic devices. City officials estimate nearly half a billion viewers will watch the show online or on TV.
By midday, hundreds of people were already occupying the best places to watch the show. “It’s been a pretty good year for us, getting rid of COVID-19 is great,” said David Hugh-Paterson, 52, outside the Sydney Opera House amid growing crowds. protected from summer showers under umbrellas.
“If we manage to get everyone on board and approach the coming year with renewed optimism and joy, then we will have succeeded,” said fireworks organizer Fortunato Foti.
Something to contrast with the feeling left by 2022, which saw Queen Elizabeth II, Pelé, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jiang Zemin and Shinzo Abe disappear.
This year also rhymed with the “Great Resignation”, a phenomenon of massive departure of employees from their jobs after the pandemic, with a slap in the face at the Oscars ceremony and the ruin of billionaires, carried away by the crushing of cryptocurrencies.
But above all, it will forever be associated with the return of war in Europe with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on a continent already bruised by two world wars.
“A peaceful sky”
In more than 300 days, nearly 7,000 civilians have been killed and 10,000 injured, according to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Sixteen million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes. For those who remain, daily life is punctuated by power cuts, Russian bombardments and a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Everyone goes through this conflict in their own way: a silent prayer, a celebration, in a common surge of resistance.
Further east, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is not in the mood for fun. Moscow has canceled its traditional pyrotechnic shows after the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, asked residents how they would like to mark the start of the new year.
“A peaceful sky above our heads” is the only wish of Muscovites like Irina Shapovalova, 51, a childcare worker.
The national broadcaster VGTRK nevertheless promised “a New Year’s Eve atmosphere, despite the changes in the country and in the world”.
But this year, the show will be without the usual artists or the star presenter Maxim Galkin, who went into exile after denouncing the war in Ukraine and since considered a “foreign agent”.
Still to the east, at the edge of the continent, COVID-19 has made a resounding comeback in China, while vaccination allows the rest of the world to return to a semblance of normal life.
Beijing suddenly abandoned its “zero COVID-19” policy earlier this month, a reversal immediately followed by an explosion in the number of contaminations. Hospitals, like crematoriums, may be overwhelmed, but rallies are planned everywhere for the transition to 2023.
However, Shanghai authorities announced that no activities would take place on the city’s famous waterfront.