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(Sounds of fireworks)
As the clock struck midnight in Australia, more than one million people watched a 12-minute fireworks display focused on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Krishana Pryia Vhandaruvenkata travelled from Melbourne to see the spectacular for the first time from the Sydney Harbour foreshore.
"For me, particularly and personally, [my wish] is to be kind to everyone. Be considerate. And you be kind to others - and people will be kind to you."
Kenyan-born Brenize Chabet has been in Sydney for five years, but says it is first time she has seen the fireworks live.
"I started to just change it up. Start the new year looking different. Everything different - and why not? I'm just starting uni. So I have high expectation for my school life and everything else going on good in my life, yes."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has wished Australians a Happy New Year, acknowledging the difficulties of 2023, and praising how Australians rose to meet those challenges.
In a statement, he says there is much to cherish and that would "guide us in 2024 as we make the greatest country on earth even better".
And the new year was acknowledged in gatherings across Asia.
In Japan, on the grounds of Zojoji temple in Tokyo, priests and members of the public took turns swinging a wooden pole against the huge bell to ring in the new year.
Taiwanese tourist Amanda Liu among those praying for better things to come in 2024.
"We are here to pray and it’s peaceful – that’s why we come here...I prayed for my family’s health, second (I hope) my business will be successful, and thirdly my relation to be ‘love love’ (laughs)."
Most major cities in China banned fireworks over safety and pollution concerns.
But the countdown was still marked with song and dance in Beijing's Capital Steel Park.
During his New Year address, Chinese President Xi Jinping says the country will use 2024 to build momentum for economic recovery - while reaffirming China’s resolute stance on reunification with Taiwan.
Mandarin then translated into English: "(We will) consolidate and enhance the positive trend of economic recovery, and achieve stable and long-term economic development. We must comprehensively deepen reform and enhance economic vitality."
Denmark's Queen Margrethe II used her annual New Year's Eve speech to announce a surprise abdication.
Danish then translated: "The surgery naturally also prompted thoughts about the future - whether it was time to pass on the responsibility to the next generation. I have decided that now is the right time. "
After 52 years in the role, she will formally step down on 14 January, handing over to her son Crown Prince Frederik.
The 83-year-old is Europe's longest-serving current monarch - and the world's only reigning queen.
During his Sunday prayers at the Vatican, Pope Francis says he continued to pray for peace, describing 2023 as a year marked by war.
Italian then translated into English: "Let us continue to pray for the peoples suffering from wars. The Ukrainian people martyred. The Palestinian and Israeli peoples, the Sudanese people and many others. At the end of a year, do you dare to ask how many lives have been taken by armed conflict, how many deaths? How much destruction? Who is involved in these conflicts? Listen to the voice of your conscience. And let us not forget the martyred Rohingya."
In Muslim-majority Pakistan, the government has banned all New Year's Eve celebrations in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The United Nations estimates almost two million Palestinians in Gaza - about 85 per cent of the peacetime population - have been displaced since Israel's offensive began in October, following Hamas' attack.
Kamal al-Zeinaty is among those displaced. He is spending his New Year in a makeshift refugee camp in Gaza.
He says his wish is to be able to return home after 12 weeks of a brutal war between Hamas and Israel.
Arabic then translated: "We do not feel that there is a new year because of the intensity of the pain we live in - all days are the same. Our celebrations are not celebrations. When can we celebrate? When we check on our children who we left behind in the north, and check on the rest of our family in the north, then it will be a celebration."
Sharon Kalderson says as the relative of hostage held by Hamas, she can't view the New Year period as a joyful time.
"Well, this is the New Year, and everyone is supposed to be happy but we are not happy. We cannot be happy because our beloved (ones are) somewhere under the ground at the Gaza Strip and we want them home today, tonight with us. So, we are here next to the cabinet (building) meeting, trying to remember that they are there and we are here and we want to be together tonight."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed in his New Year's address to wreak "wrath" against Russian forces in 2024, urging Western allies to maintain their support as the war approaches its second anniversary on February 24.
Ukrainian then translated into English: "Ukraine is alive. Ukraine lives. Ukraine fights. Ukraine advances, Ukraine overcomes the path. And all together, this is not a New Year's miracle, not a fairy tale, not magic, but the merit of each of you."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is facing an election in March, made only passing reference in his New Year address to his war in Ukraine.
In the last few months, with the war largely deadlocked, he has toned down his previously strident, nationalistic messaging on Ukraine and given more public attention to issues such as inflation.
He says he wants the focus to be on unity.
Russian the translated into English: "We are united in our thoughts, in work and in battle, on weekdays and on holidays, showing the most important features of the people of Russia - solidarity, mercy, perseverance."
Elections are also set to take place in 2024, affecting the political fate of half of the world's population. Votes are scheduled in places including the US, Britain, the EU, India, Taiwan, South Africa and Venezuela.
In his New Year’s Eve message, French President Emmanuel Macron says the 2024 European Parliament elections in June will be crucial to Ukraine’s future and the fate of democracy across Europe.
French then translated into English: "2024 will also be a year of decisive choices. We will have to choose a stronger, more sovereign Europe in the light of Jacques Delors' legacy. A Europe that works for peace in the Middle East and on our own continent. By continuing to support the Ukrainian people and, with them, our security, our freedom and our values."
He says he is looking forward to France hosting the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics - and to finally seeing the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris reopen after a 2019 fire and large restoration project.
