Millions across the World celebrate as 2018 rolls in

The New Year 2018 celebrations have begun across the globe. In many cities, revelers take to the streets to celebrate the arrival of the New Year with the community while some prefer quiet time with family and friends. The New Year obviously arrives at different times for different countries across the globe.

A look at how people around the world are ringing in 2018:

Australia

Australians welcomed 2018 with a rainbow-themed fireworks in Sydney. At least 1.5 million spectators were expected to witness the pyrotechnics, AFP reported.

More than 1.5 million spectators were packing the city's foreshore to watch tonnes of pyrotechnics light up the night sky, just hours after New Zealand became the first major nation to celebrate.

New Zealand

Tens of thousands of New Zealanders took to streets and beaches, becoming among the first in the world to usher in 2018.

As the new year dawned in this southern hemisphere nation, fireworks boomed and crackled above city centers and harbors, and party-goers sang, hugged, danced and kissed.

In Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, tens of thousands gathered around Sky Tower as five minutes of nonstop pyrotechnics exploded from the structure's upper decks.

Japan

Many Japanese are celebrating the arrival of the Year of the Dog in the traditional way of praying for peace and good fortune at neighborhood Shinto shrines, and eating New Year's food such as noodles, shrimp and sweet black beans.

Germany

Outside the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, words like "tolerance", "peace" and "freedom" were displayed on the ground as part of a New Year's eve light installation by artist Ingo Dietzel. The artist collects wishes from people and integrates them in his work that will be displayed during New Year's Eve celebrations in front of Cologne's most famous landmark.

China

Those willing to brave the cold in Beijing will join a countdown at the tower at Yongdingmen Gate, a rebuilt version of the Ming dynasty-era landmark gate at the southern end of the city's north-south axis.

Bells will be rung and prayers offered at temples in Beijing, but the Gregorian calendar's New Year's celebrations are typically muted in China compared to the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, a time of fireworks, feasts and family reunions.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that President Xi Jinping sent a New Year's greeting to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, saying Beijing is ready to boost cooperation with Russia in 2018.

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)