A New Year Rolls In Around The World

[The Godfather]

Fireworks explode over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House during a pyrotechnic show to celebrate the New Year January 1, 2011. Local authorities planned for over 1.5 million people to crowd the Sydney Harbour foreshore and welcome in the new year under the massive fireworks display.

[The Godfather]

Members of Sao Paulo's Commerce Association release balloons with the colors of the Brazilian flag to celebrate the end of the year in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010.

[The Godfather]

Children wear bear furs during New Year ritual dances in Comanesti, Romania on Friday Dec. 30 2010. In pre-Christian rural traditions, dancers wearing colored costumes or animal furs, toured from house to house in villages singing and dancing to ward off evil.

[The Godfather]

The Times Square New Year's Eve Ball is tested they day before New Year's Eve December 30, 2010 in New York City. The 11,875-pound Waterford crystal ball will descend a 141-foot tall flagpole to mark the beginning of 2011.

[The Godfather]

New Year's wishes for 2011 are tacked on the Carnival Cruise Lines Wishing Wall at the Times Square Visitors Center in New York, December 20, 2010. The slips of paper with people's wishes on them will be included in the confetti that will fall from the tops of buildings around the Square on New Year's Eve.

[The Godfather]

Men dressed as Vikings lead the torchlight procession as it makes its way to Princess Street for the start of the New Year celebrations December 30, 2010 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Thousands of people joined in the torchlight procession, followed by the burning of a Viking long ship.

[The Godfather]

Thousands gather for the torchlight procession in Edinburgh which starts the New Year celebrations December 30, 2010 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

[The Godfather]

Zoo owner Manny Tangco holds up a rabbit and a tiger cub while surrounded by local children at the Malabon Zoo in Malabon, in northern Metro Manila, Philippines on December 28, 2010 to illustrate the shift from the "Year of the Tiger" to the "Year of the Rabbit".

[The Godfather]

A man has his beard trimmed in the shape of the number 2011 to welcome the New Year inside a barbershop in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on December 29, 2010.

[The Godfather]

Faithful pour cider on a statue of Yemanja, Goddess of the Sea, during a ceremony that is part of traditional New Year's celebrations on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Wednesday Dec. 29, 2010. Yemanja is from the African Yoruban religion brought to America by West African slaves.