New Year festivals and parties are under way around the world.
Many will welcome 2011 in a blaze of fireworks and parties, temporarily banishing the misery of extreme weather which has struck countries across the world.
Some 1.5m people were expected to cram Sydney's foreshore for fireworks on the Harbour Bridge, with sunshine attracting record crowds in the afternoon even as the country's northeast battled devastating floods.
In Europe, crowds will throng landmarks like London's Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower, following a big freeze that paralysed travel and cut power and water supplies for tens of thousands.
New York workers were scrambling to plough snow out of Times Square for the famous New Year countdown, after a blizzard dumped some 80cm in the city and surrounding areas.
The tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati, just east of the international dateline, was the first to welcome in 2011 at 1000 GMT.
The deeply religious community of about 6,000 marked the occasion with village church services.
In Asia, about 400,000 were expected at a glittering fireworks-and-laser display along neon-lit Hong Kong's harbour, while millions of Japanese will visit Shinto shrines to 'purify' themselves.
Although Lunar New Year is a much bigger event in the continent, thousands will brave Beijing's cold for the countdown at an upmarket shopping centre, while about 7,000 were expected at a kite-flying event in central Shanghai.
Seoul was to observe Buddhist tradition with a bell at Bosingak traditional pavilion rung 33 times by 11 civilian delegates in turn, watched by up to 100,000 revellers.
Thousands of people will jam Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake for midnight, while the 'Bangkok Countdown' in a glitzy mall - scene of major anti-government protests this year - is the centrepiece of Thailand's celebrations.
Revellers in Indian financial and entertainment capital Mumbai - scene of a 2008 attack that killed 166 people - were given the go-ahead to party through the night, despite intelligence about a possible New Year militant strike.
Earlier, organisers were forced to cancel a giant 1 January snowball fight in Berlin after 8,000 signed up, while in New York this week, people wrote down and shredded bad memories of 2010 in Times Square for 'Good Riddance Day'.
So, Happy New Year!
