London’s Dazzling Fireworks and Light Show Brings in The New Year

The UK celebrated the dawn of 2021 with fireworks and an impressive light display over London that included tributes to NHS staff. Revellers were not able to ring in the New Year as they usually do because of the coronavirus pandemic, with people instead being told to stay at home. The 10-minute show from the Thames was streamed on multiple TV channels at midnight.

All across the world, the event was celebrated in ways that were far more muted than usual due to pandemic restrictions on open-air gatherings. Hundreds of millions of people were forced to turn to made-for-TV fireworks displays or they simply called it a night early since they could not toast the end of 2020 together with friends and family or even strangers.

In Scotland, several hundred people gathered at Edinburgh Castle to see in the new year – this was despite warnings from police and the government to stay away. People sang and danced before eventually dispersing when several police vans and cars pulled on to the castle esplanade. Mostly though, the streets were empty with Scots bringing the New Year in at home under strict Covid rules.