Around the world people celebrated with fireworks, kisses, blessings, gatherings, cheers, watching the sunrise and plunges into icy bodies of water to welcome in a new year. Here’s a look back at how some of them marked the transition. — Lloyd Young<\/em> (41 photos total<\/a>)<\/p>\n <\/a> Fireworks explode in the sky over Bucharest, Romania, at midnight, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012, during street celebrations of the new year. Large crowds gathered downtown Romania’s capital taking advantage of the dry weather to attend the celebrations. (Vadim Ghirda\/Associated Press) <\/p>\n The Year in Pictures Part I – The Big Picture – Boston.com<\/a><\/p>\n (36 photos total<\/a>)<\/p>\n <\/a> A wave caused by a tsunami flows into the city of Miyako from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck Japan March 11, 2011. (Mainichi Shimbun \/Reuters) <\/p>\n The year in Pictures Part II – The Big Picture – Boston.com<\/a><\/p>\n (45 photos total<\/a>)<\/p>\n <\/a> A cloud of ash billowing from Puyehue volcano near Osorno in southern Chile, 870 km south of Santiago, on June 5. Puyehue volcano erupted for the first time in half a century on June 4, 2011, prompting evacuations for 3,500 people as it sent a cloud of ash that reached Argentina. The National Service of Geology and Mining said the explosion that sparked the eruption also produced a column of gas 10 kilometers (six miles) high, hours after warning of strong seismic activity in the area. (Claudio Santana\/AFP\/Getty Images) ) <\/p>\n The Year in Pictures Part III – The Big Picture – Boston.com<\/a><\/p>\n (51 photos total<\/a>)<\/p>\n <\/a> A defaced portrait of fugitive Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi in Tripoli on Sept. 1, 2011 as the fallen strongman vowed again not to surrender in a message broadcast on the 42nd anniversary of the coup which brought him to power. (Patrick Baz\/AFP\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Each week, The Big Picture features one long page full of photos of a current event. These photos are always very professional and gorgeous, appearing in a large format. My one complaint is that scrolling inevitably fails to line most of the photos up correctly; I wish there were a better mechanism for moving between … Continue reading The Big Picture from The Boston Globe [recommended]<\/span> ![](\"http:\/\/inapcache.boston.com\/universal\/site_graphics\/blogs\/bigpicture\/newyear2011\/bp1.jpg\")
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