Damian Shaw / EPA
From Sydney to Siberia, revelers celebrate the arrival of a new year.
By Tracy Connor, NBC News
The new year?s westward march across the globe is well under way, with Samoa ushering in 2013 a full day before the clock strikes midnight in neighboring American Samoa.
It?s a quirk of the international dateline, which Samoa moved a year ago, giving it a jump on the jubilation that erupts as the earth bids farewell to one year and welcomes another, time zone by time zone.
The celebration started small in places like Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, and Kiribati, an equator-straddling chain of islands in the Pacific, at 5 a.m. ET.
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An hour later, Auckland, New Zealand, became the first major city to begin a new calendar, with fireworks shot from the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere at 1,076 feet.
?The really big parties started, though, when the new year reached Australia at 8 a.m. ET. More than a million revelers gathered in Sydney?s harbor for a massive $6.9 million pyrotechnics party hosted by pop star Kylie Minogue.
"This is really putting Australia on the map in terms of welcoming people to the new year," Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said of the event, watched by 2 million on television.
Among those watching in person was Melissa Sjostedt, of Florida, who read about Sydney?s firework spectaculars in National Geographic a decade ago.
?Ever since that, I?ve always wanted to see this for real, live, in person,? she told the Associated Press.
Sjostedt?s hometown wouldn?t be ushering in 2012 for another 16 hours. The heart of the U.S. celebrations will be New York?s Times Square, where hundreds of thousands will watch a Waterford crystal ball, lit up with 32,000 bulbs, drop from a skyscraper.
The temperature will be in the 30s -- cold, but still better than 1917, when it was a mere 1 degree. And security will be tight: Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly promises the area will be the ?safest place in the world.?
David Moir / Reuters
Up Helly Aa vikings from the Shetland Islands march in the torchlight procession to mark the start of Hogmanay (New Year) celebrations in Edinburgh on Dec. 30.
Before the celebration arrives in the U.S., though, countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and South America will mark the passage of another 12 months.
North Korea?s fireworks went off a day after another party, marking the one-year anniversary of Kim Jong Un?s ascension to supreme commander. Hong Kong was hosting its biggest bash ever with a $1.6 million fireworks display.
Increasingly democratic Myanmar was planning a public countdown for the first time; public gatherings were discouraged or banned under five decades of military control.
One night of jollification wasn?t enough for some people.
Scotland launched the annual festival known as Hogmanay on Sunday night with thousands of torchbearers marching in Edinburgh, drawing inspiration from pagan traditions. The Scotsman newspaper?estimated that 7,000 people?participated in the "river of fire" through the city center.
The fete was set to last until Wednesday and draw 80,000 revelers from around the world, according to the official Hogmanay website.?
In some corners of the world, however, joy was tempered.
The capital of Cyprus canceled its party because of the European economic crisis, giving the $21,000 it would have spent to needy schoolchildren.
Russians were marking their last New Year?s Eve with unfettered access to beer. New restrictions preventing sale of suds overnight or at street kiosks go into effect Jan. 1, part of a government effort to curb alcoholism.
?You have to stock at home. And stocking beer is more problematic than stocking vodka,? brewing industry official Isaac Sheps told London?s Daily Telegraph. ?It?s bulky. It?s big.?
Mariana Bazo / Reuters
We may have different calendars, customs and beliefs, but most of us mark the arrival of a new year. Take a look at the ways cultures around the world celebrate and bring good luck for the year ahead.
In India, the armed forces and some nightclubs scaled back amid outrage over the fatal gang-rape of a young woman.
?The Indian army, air force and navy have decided to cancel all the parties planned to welcome the new year,? a senior official told Agence France Presse. ?They want to dedicate the last day of the year to the gang-rape victim.?
Ashish Gupta, 35, an accountant, said it would be too difficult to enjoy the traditional revelry.
?This New Year is not going to be the same for me and many of my friends,? he said.
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The Associated Press and NBC News' John Newland contributed to this report.
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