"(The tsunami) is on the back of everyone's minds," British tourist Mark Stiles said. "You could tell people were a little more reverent tonight; it was kept in people's thoughts."
In many places, people were too busy counting the dead, feeding survivors and combating the spread of disease to even think about partying.
In Indonesia, most government agencies cancelled fireworks displays and urged people to pray instead. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in his annual year-end address,
told his countrymen to welcome the New Year without a party because "now we are filled with concern and sadness."
On the mainland, China Central Television said Friday it was cancelling its live New Year's Eve gala programming out of respect for the disaster victims.
In Thailand, which on Friday announced that its official death toll had soared to more than 4,500, parties were scrapped across the country at the government's urging.
On tsunami-ravaged Phuket Island, tourists and bar owners were not sure how to spend the evening.
"Too many people died here. I cannot celebrate New Year," said Rene Vander Veen, from Waiblingen, Germany.
But a group of western tourists who survived the tsunami that battered India's remote Andaman and Nicobar region decided to stay and celebrate New Year's Eve in the exotic archipelago.
Kevin Rasmussen, 26, from Copenhagen, Denmark, and his girlfriend, Stine Hansun, 22, hoped to meet about 20 other friends from Germany, Israel, Switzerland and Scotland to travel to nearby Havelock Island for a New Year's party.
"They figured that since every place was at risk, it's better to go out than be on the mainland," Rasmussen said. "Everyone was sad about the human tragedy, but didn't see much point in running away."
In Taiwan, the world's tallest skyscraper, Taipei 101, which was officially opened earlier Friday, played a key role in New Year's Eve celebrations that went ahead unaffected. Up to 200,000 revellers converging on the neighbourhood of the 508-metre-tall building for pop music concerts, a countdown, and a massive light show and fireworks display.
The Philippines, which escaped the tsunami just weeks after flooding and mudslides killed more than 1,000 people, also was in a celebratory mood, with fireworks and gunfire building up to a cacophony hours before midnight.
Hundreds of thousands of Malaysians flocked to mosques, temples and churches Friday for special prayers. Government officials in the mostly Muslim country banned firework displays and cancelled public concerts and celebrations as a sign of mourning for at least 66 Malaysians confirmed killed.
The Islamic sultanate of Brunei also scrapped New Year's Eve festivities and held prayers at mosques.
Hotels and clubs in most Indian cities, except those in Madras, the capital of the southern Tamil Nadu state where tsunamis claimed more than 6,000 lives, were going ahead with their celebrations, although some toned down programs and others decided to donate part of the money raised for relief work.
"Most of the performers have already arrived and the sponsors also want to go ahead. But they will be low-key programs," said Sanjukta Roy, a communications manager with the Taj Group of hotels.
"Hé ! bonjour, Monsieur du Corbeau.
Que vous êtes joli ! que vous me semblez beau !
Sans mentir, si votre ramage
Se rapporte à votre plumage,
Vous êtes le Phénix des hôtes de ces bois."
(AP) - The new year got off to a subdued start Saturday around disaster-ravaged Asia, where prayers frequently substituted for parties.
Even in places where fireworks displays went on as planned, officials made appeals for donations to the massive relief effort in the wake of the quake-tsunami tragedy that killed more than 120,000 people.
Sydney, Australia, which throws its biggest party of the year each Dec. 31, said it was too late to cancel festivities that include big-ticket bashes around its glittering harbour and multimillion-dollar firework shows from the Harbour Bridge. Instead, many of the estimated one million revellers marked a moment of silence for the disaster victims three hours before the fireworks started, and aid agency Oxfam said donations had surpassed its expectations.
AP
"Hé ! bonjour, Monsieur du Corbeau.
Que vous êtes joli ! que vous me semblez beau !
Sans mentir, si votre ramage
Se rapporte à votre plumage,
Vous êtes le Phénix des hôtes de ces bois."
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