By Troy Myers and Joseph Lord
The East Coast rang in 2026 as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Day.
As Dec. 31 changed over to Jan. 1, thousands of guests live in Times Square—and at least 1 billion people around the globe—watched the annual ball drop in New York City.
The minute-long tradition is among the most viewed annual live events.
Other time zones in the United States are now counting down to midnight.
Americans living in the Pacific Time Zone have the longest wait in the contiguous United States, with New Year’s arriving three hours later in Los Angeles than it does in New York City.
Celebrations are already underway around the globe to ring in the new year with fireworks, drum performances, drone shows, and more.
The new year arrived first for the islands in the Pacific Ocean closest to the International Date Line, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tonga, and New Zealand.
Shortly thereafter, Sydney entered 2026, marking the New Year with a massive fireworks display that stretched more than four miles—as well as heightened security, coming in the wake of a shooting incident at a Hanukkah festival on Dec. 14. Police officers carried rapid-fire rifles, a first for the celebration.
Since then, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe have also crossed into the New Year.
Europe marked its entry into 2026 with fireworks displays in London, Paris, Moscow, and elsewhere.
In Seoul, South Korea, thousands gathered for a Buddhist tradition of ringing a bell 33 times, meant to protect against misfortune and welcome peace and prosperity. At the Great Wall of China outside Beijing, a drum performance and light show celebrated the arrival of the new year.
Fireworks created a dazzling display in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and sparkled over Egypt’s ancient pyramids in Giza, Paris’s Eiffel Tower, and the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Hundreds of other nations and thousands more cities are similarly bidding farewell to 2025.
The new year is slowly creeping across the globe, and North and South Americans are anxiously awaiting the countdown to midnight, with just around an hour to go until the clock strikes twelve on the East Coast.
In Rio de Janeiro, residents are gathering at a massive music and firework festival, known as “Réveillon.” Organizers said they plan to beat their own world record for the largest New Year’s Eve celebration in the world.
A whiskey boot in Prescott, Ariz., flip-flops in Folly Beach, S.C., a buzzard in Perry, Ga., shellfish in coastal towns, fruits and vegetables, candy and meat, and various other animals and items are all part of the wide American array of watching things drop to celebrate 2026.
There’s been a pickle drop in Dillsburg, Pa., since 1907. Not even an hour away in Lebanon, Pa., the town will drop a 150-pound stick of bologna.
The easternmost town in the United States, Eastport, Maine, hosts The Great Sardine & Maple Leaf Drop. The southernmost town, Key West, Fla., is dropping a six-foot queen conch shell onto the bar at Sloppy Joe’s. Just to the north of Florida in Unadilla, Ga., is the ninth annual Hog Drop of a pig-shaped sign accompanied by a BBQ competition. Up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the town of Naguanee, a 50-pound meatball will fall into a giant vat of tomato sauce.
The list of impressive and unique New Year’s celebrations across America goes on.
As the world turns the page on 2025 and flips to the latter half of the 2020s book, people around the globe are putting differences aside to come together in promoting and celebrating peace, love, and prosperity in 2026.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
