Fireworks, Festivities Ring In 21st Century

From East to West and North to South, the world welcomed the new millennium in a shimmering tapestry of song and light that rippled around the globe.

Woven together by satellite TV, the world’s nearly 200 countries in their 24 time zones became a jamboree of disparate cultures--South Sea islanders singing Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus; Buddhist monks praying for peace in Japan; a German choir singing in a church in Nazareth, Israel; and a huge French-made bell tolling a welcome in Newport, Ky., for each time zone entering 2000.

In Paris, the Eiffel Tower became a giant Roman candle on the stroke of midnight, as fireworks rippled up from bottom to top.

London revelers joined hands and sang “Auld Lang Syne” as dazzling fireworks soared overhead and up and down the Thames.

In Rome, Pope John Paul II gave thanks for humanity’s triumphs and asked forgiveness for its sins.

“What suffering, what dramatic events!” the frail 79-year-old pontiff said of the 1900s. “But, also, what incredible achievements.”

Humanity also breathed a little easier as the rolling wave of 1999-to-2000 date changes failed to awaken any immediate Y2K disruptions of the world’s major computer systems. Experts cautioned, however, that problems could still arise in the next few days or even weeks.

The celebrations began at 2 a.m. PST near the international date line in the South Pacific and swept westward.

Australia treated 1 million onlookers to an elegant harborside pyrotechnics show launched from Sydney, site of the 2000 Summer Olympics. Then came Guam and Tokyo--and Hong Kong, where actor Jackie Chan glided into the festivities on bat-style wings.

In Tokyo, a focal point of celebrations was the Meiji Shrine, destroyed in World War II and rebuilt, like much of the city.

In Hong Kong, New Year’s decorations lit up skyscrapers standing on what a century ago was unreclaimed sea. In Singapore, transformed from a seedy backwater into one of the world’s busiest ports, dozens of ships blasted their horns in celebration.

From ceremonial fires on the Great Wall of China to all-night shopping for a burgeoning middle class, the world’s most populous country greeted the new millennium as a culture that was already ancient when Christ was born.

Signs of Asia’s long-running conflicts haunted the festivities.

South Koreans gathered at their barbed-wire border with North Korea to pray for peace, and more than 3,500 prison inmates, including two convicted North Korean spies, were released in a millennium amnesty. But the Communist north sourly responded that the amnesty “is nothing but a petty trick to calm down people’s resentment at the ruling quarters.”

In India, the Dalai Lama, who fled Chinese rule in his homeland of Tibet in 1959, joined thousands of Hindu holy men and Buddhist monks singing hymns on the banks of the holy Ganges River.

In the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak marked the last day of the century with a prediction that peace is coming to a country at war for 50 years. “The decisive moment is very near, even within a few months, and we should ready our hearts appropriately,” he wrote in a newspaper article.

At Egypt’s pyramids, a 12-hour light show and concert honored what the nation hailed as its seventh millennium.

In Paris, just five hours before midnight the digital countdown clock on the Eiffel Tower went dark after working fine for 1,000 days. Officials called it an old-fashioned glitch, but were unable to fix it in time for the festivities.

Whimsical Ferris wheels dotted the Champs-Elysees to the Concorde, where a giant illuminated wheel carried revelers high above the Egyptian obelisk that was 1,300 years old before Christians kept a calendar.

The city and its revelers seemed to have made a full recovery from days of brutal storms and flooded streets.

“This is the most beautiful city in the world, and you can overeat to your heart’s content,” said Jane Miller, a poet from Tucson, Ariz. “Where else would I be?”

Her friend, Jacqueline Tully, a San Francisco private investigator, nodded. Their group of seven picked a celebration site years ago, and Paris was unanimous.

“Something in everyone wants to be in the right place at the right time,” Tully said. “And, my God, this is a millennium.”

Francois Chaplain, a shopkeeper, drove his wife and his three kids down from Brittany. “Paris is a great place to be, I suppose,” he said. “I came here because I couldn’t make it to New York.”

There, by nightfall, crowds were gathering at Times Square, “crossroads of the world,” for the biggest, splashiest celebration to greet the new millennium on the American mainland. A giant Waterford crystal ball awaited its moment in history.

And, as 2000 approached the United States, one more milestone unfolded on a smaller canvas in Allentown, Pa., where Sarah Knauss’ life ended. According to the Guinness Book of Records, she was the world’s oldest person--119.

She died quietly in a nursing home, 33 hours before seeing her third century.