As world turns page on 2004, prayers substitute for parties
PARIS -- For Sweden's prime minister, celebrating New Year's after the Asian tsunami felt ''completely wrong." Paris, its heart heavy with the tragedy, draped black cloth along the Champs-Elysees. Elsewhere, prayers substituted for parties in the final minutes of 2004.
Even for those far from Asian and African shores where the death toll from the giant waves approached 150,000, the disaster was too overwhelming for a carefree leap into 2005.
In Europe, thousands were struggling with the loss of loved ones and friends. The confirmed death tolls for many European countries were in the double digits, but officials warned the final tallies would be in the hundreds or even thousands. For Sweden alone, 2,500 tourists were still missing, while Switzerland was waiting to hear from some 700, and the French reported at least 118 disappeared.
''Never has the step into a new year felt heavier," said Goeran Persson, Sweden's premier who urged Swedes to light candles in their windows as a vigil. ''We should have celebrated with fireworks and festivities. Now that feels completely wrong."
Many of the estimated 1 million revelers around the glittering, firework-illuminated harbor in Sydney marked a moment of silence for victims.
''You could tell people were a little more reverent tonight; it was kept in people's thoughts," British tourist Mark Stiles said.
Stores in major German cities said sales of fireworks were down, in some cases by a third. Some retailers attributed the restraint to appeals from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and others for the money usually spent on pyrotechnics to be donated.
Germany's main party at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was going ahead, but the revelers were urged on big screens to donate to UNICEF. Television stations turned their New Year's Eve galas into charity events for tsunami victims.
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel of Austria also urged people to forgo fireworks. The city of Innsbruck canceled its display in a silent vigil for 40 residents of the western Austrian province of Tyrol who remain missing in Asia.
Thousands in London fell silent for two minutes in memory of the lives lost in Asia. Then as Big Ben struck midnight, a spectacular fireworks display burst in the sky above the River Thames, casting a brilliant glow over Westminster houses of Parliament.
Most government agencies in Indonesia, where the death toll was by far the largest, canceled fireworks and urged prayer.
''Let's welcome the new year without a party because now we are filled with concern and sadness," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said. ''We are still mourning. Let's pray together and hopefully God will not give us another disaster."
