LONDON, England (AP) — Sydney’s skyline erupted in fireworks as Australia ushered in 2013 today, while extravagant displays soon followed in Hong Kong and Beijing, and even the once-isolated country of Myanmar joined the party for the first time in decades.

Asia greeted the New Year with an atmosphere of renewed optimism despite the “fiscal cliff” impasse of spending cuts and tax increases threatening to reverberate globally from the US and the tattered economies of Europe, where the party was expected to be more subdued.

Celebrations were planned around the world, culminating with the traditional crystal ball drop in New York City’s Times Square, where one million people were expected to cram into the surrounding streets.

The balmy summer night in Sydney was split by seven tons of fireworks fired from rooftops and barges, many cascading from the city’s Harbour Bridge, in a $6.9 million pyrotechnic extravaganza billed by organisers as the world’s largest.

In Myanmar, after nearly five decades under military regimes that discouraged or banned big public gatherings, about 90,000 people experienced the country’s first New Year’s Eve countdown in a field in the largest city of Yangon.

“We feel like we are in a different world,” said Yu Thawda, a university student who came with three of her friends.

Tens of thousands of people lined Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour to view a $1.6 million fireworks display, said to be the biggest ever in the southern Chinese city.

Hotels, clubs and other sites in New Delhi, the Indian capital, cancelled festivities after the death Saturday of a young rape victim touched off days of mourning and reflection about women’s safety. People were asked to light candles to express their solidarity with the victim.

In Indonesia, Jakarta’s street party centered on a seven-kilometre (four-mile) thoroughfare closed to traffic from nightfall until after midnight. Workers erected 16 large stages along the normally clogged, eight-lane highway through the heart of the city. Indonesia’s booming economy is a rare bright spot amid global gloom and is bringing prosperity — or the hope of it — to its people.

In the Philippines, where many are recovering from devastation from a recent typhoon, health officials have hit upon a successful way to stop revelers from setting off huge illegal firecrackers that maim and injure hundreds of Filipinos each year.

A health official, Eric Tayag, donned the splashy outfit of South Korean star PSY and danced to his YouTube hit ‘Gangnam Style’ video while preaching against the use of illegal firecrackers on TV, in schools and in public arenas.

“The campaign has become viral,” Tayag said.

In austerity-hit Europe, the mood was more restrained — if hopeful. The year 2013 is projected to be a sixth straight one of recession amid Greece’s worst economic crisis since World War II.

Celebrating New Year’s Eve with a vespers service in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI said that despite all the injustice in the world, goodness prevails.  In his homily, Benedict said taking time to meditate in prolonged reflection and prayer can help “find healing from the inevitable wounds of daily life.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s New Year’s message warned her country to prepare for difficult economic times ahead.

Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, decided to cancel celebrations in light of the economic crisis.

Instead, the 16,000 euros (US$21,000) saved from the cancelled event will be given to some 320 needy schoolchildren.