TONED DOWN. New Year celebrations are muted in Tacloban, where corpses still remain unburied 7 weeks after Typhoon Yolanda. December 28, 2013 photo by Marlon Tano/AFP
MANILA, Philippines – The world is promising spectacular New Year celebrations but in areas ravaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in the Philippines, the revelry is muted.
In Tacloban, which bore the brunt of the November 8 storm, officials were preparing a midnight fireworks display to try to boost survivors’ spirits, despite nearly 8,000 dead or missing.
Aid agencies are also organizing free concerts or distributing food for the traditional New Year’s Eve dinner, an AFP reporter said.
In the small, ruined farming village of San Isidro, residents are still grappling with the overpowering stench of death as 1,400 corpses stacked in black body bags lay in a field, more than 7 weeks after the tragedy.
Yolanda left 4.4 million people homeless, one of the deadliest natural disasters in Philippine history.
‘Australia vies to host best party’
In other parts of the world, 2014 will be welcomed with extravagant displays. Sydney, Australia will kick off a wave of pyrotechnics to usher in the New Year, along with Hong Kong and world record-chasing Dubai.
Tons of explosives will light up Australia’s biggest city, with fireworks shooting off the Opera House for the first time in more than 10 years as part of the December 31 extravaganza, focused on the Harbour Bridge.
Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore said the Aus$6 million show ($5.4 million), themed “Shine,” was expected to attract 1.6 million spectators.
“We are ready to host the world’s best New Year’s Eve on the world’s most beautiful harbor,” Moore told reporters.
A record 3 fireworks displays will take place through the evening, with Moore promising the show – biodegradable and using recycled water – would be “bigger than ever.”
Dubai is hoping to break the Guinness World Record for the largest display, pledging to set off more than 400,000 fireworks. Kuwait set the mark in 2011 with an hour-long blast of 77,282 fireworks.
Before that, cities across Asia will hail the New Year, with Hong Kong boasting the biggest-ever countdown show for the Chinese city.
Fireworks will soar from skyscrapers and a one-kilometer line of barges along Victoria Harbour in a “wish upon a star” tourism board show.
In Japan, shoppers were busy buying crabs, tuna sashimi and other delicacies to feast in the New Year, with noodle shops doing an especially brisk trade.
Eating noodles on New Year’s Eve is regarded in Japan as a symbolic act to wish for a long life.
Millions of people were due to visit shrines and temples through to early morning in massive, yet quiet tradition, paying their first annual respects and praying for peace for relatives.
Seoul will ring in 2014 with a ritual clanging of the city’s 15th-century bronze bell 33 times, reflecting the ancient practice of marking a new year.
In Singapore, people will flock to the financial district for fireworks while thousands of white spheres will be launched to bob on Marina Bay, holding residents’ wishes for 2014.
Jakarta has set up 12 city center stages for performances to showcase the vast archipelago’s kaleidoscope of cultures.
Yet 6,500 police will be out to ensure security amid warnings that extremists in the Muslim-majority nation may target the celebrations, prompting travel warnings from countries including neighboring Australia.
Tonga, located near the international dateline, will be one of the first nations to greet 2014. The religious Pacific state is holding a prayer festival that culminates with bamboo “cannon” fired into the air.
NY ball drop, Mandela tribute
In Rio de Janeiro, authorities are predicting 2.3 million people – a third of them tourists – will crowd Copacabana Beach for fireworks and pop music.
The theme will be romantic, said the city’s tourism secretary, Antonio Pedro Figueira de Mello.
“At one moment of the musicalized fireworks, the music sort of falls, and there we have a kiss in Copacabana, we’ll hear a ‘smack’, … we’ll have 100 hearts exploding on Copacabana beach to toast for this reveillon of love,” he said.
Major spectaculars will also light up Moscow’s Red Square, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate and central London when Big Ben bongs midnight.
An expected one million revelers will gather in New York to mark the stroke of midnight and the traditional New Year’s Eve ball-drop over Times Square.
Cape Town will have a free concert with fireworks and a 3D tribute to Nelson Mandela who died December 5.
Images from the anti-apartheid hero’s life will be projected onto City Hall where he gave his first speech after release from 27 years in prison in 1990. – Rappler.com
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Revelry muted in Tacloban amid global 2014 party
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