The New Year, 2012, Arrives
(This is the full fireworks display above; the first video was only a little over a minute long.)
Above, this was in Sydney, Australia. Leave it to the Aussies to do it right. Of course, the Samoans were the first.
The mood was festive in the South Pacific island nation of Samoa, where, for once, revelers were the first in the world to welcome the new year, rather than the last.
Samoa and neighboring Tokelau hopped across the international date line at midnight on Thursday, skipping Friday and moving instantly to Saturday. The time-jump revelry that began at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 31 spilled into the night.
Samoa and Tokelau lie near the date line that zigzags vertically through the Pacific Ocean, and both sets of islands decided to realign themselves this year from the Americas side of the line to the Asia side, to be more in tune with key trading partners.
Below, this was in Auckland, New Zealand.
Get ready for your lives, people. It’s a do-over. Despite heartbreak, predictions of disaster, torture, poverty, fear, and despair, let’s hope and pray for the best for ourselves and everyone else. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. It will get better.
(Gotta go to work, but I will be back in the early evening.)
