Revelers around the world greeted 2009 with fireworks, bell ringing and a tinge of optimism Thursday — amid hopes they'd seen the last of 2008's disappearing jobs and slumping stocks.
"I'm looking forward to 2009," said Randolph King of England, whose retirement fund was gutted in the global financial crisis. "Because it can't get much worse."
After the most volatile financial year in decades, people paused for a deep breath and a sip of ... perhaps something cheaper than champagne.
"We're not going to celebrate in a big way. We're being careful," said architect Moussa Siham, 24, as shoppers in the affluent area west of Paris were scaling back purchases for the traditional New Year's Eve feast.
The new year also brought tragedy, as rescue workers in Thailand said at least 59 New Year's revelers died in a fire that swept through a popular nightclub in Bangkok, with about another 130 injured.
In the splendor of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI called for "soberness and solidarity" in 2009. During a year's end vespers service Wednesday evening, the pope said these times are "marked by uncertainty and worry for the future" but urged people not to be afraid and to help each other.
Others tried to forget their troubles, for at least one night.
Sydney, Australia, was the world's first major city to ring in 2009, showering its shimmering harbor with a kaleidoscope of light that drew cheers from more than a million people.
In Ireland, thousands of Dubliners and tourists gathered outside the capital's oldest medieval cathedral, Christ Church, to hear the traditional New Year's Eve bell-ringing.
"It is a wondrously beautiful note on which to end what, for many people, has been an awfully out-of-tune 2008," said Gary Maguire, a volunteer pulling the ropes.
Some of the U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan gathered in Kabul to cut cake and count down to the new year.
In Brazil, six luxury cruise liners floated off Rio's famed Copacabana beach as fireworks erupted over heads of two million revelers.
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