Israel welcomed 2023 with festivities and parties on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, with restrictions on COVID-19 celebrations for the first time in 3 years.
Across the country, as well as Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, other people flocked to pubs, restaurants and other public places to welcome the new year. Others held rallies in their homes or simply held in private.
The festivities were particularly hampered in late 2020, when the country was under its third coronavirus lockdown, and to a lesser extent in late 2021, when some restrictions were imposed at the start of what would be the country’s fifth. permanent confinement (until now).
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said Sunday morning that its doctors treated about 1,000 people in total overnight, adding 61 injured on the roads, 17 injured in incidents of violence and about 30 who needed alcohol treatment. He also said 10 women were being taken in ambulances to hospitals to give birth.
Although many Israelis mark the arrival of the New Year, it is a much more low-key occasion than in Western countries and there is no local equivalent to throwing the ball in Times Square or fireworks in capitals around the world.
Unlike the Jewish New Year on Rosh Hashanah, in autumn, the New Year is a holiday in Israel.
Many Israelis call New Year’s Eve “Sylvester,” a term used in some European countries, referring to fourth-century Pope Sylvester I, who died on December 31.
Many of the 1. 7 million Israeli immigrants from the former Soviet Union and their descendants, tens of thousands of whom arrived in 2022 in the shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, historically celebrate Novy God, or New Year in Russian, a day celebrated starting Dec. 1. 31 which includes vacations and family circle reunions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned to leadership two days before the end of 2022, issued a festive message: “A new year, a new government, a new leadership. I wish all Israeli citizens a satisfied and satisfied Calfinishar New Year. And I wish all who celebrate Novy God — S Novim Godom.
Lee-Bob, who has an organization of friends who gather each and every New Year’s Eve in Rehovot to celebrate Novy God, told The Times of Israel that while in recent years they had seen Russian President Vladimir Putin’s classic Christmas speech, this year they switched to watching that of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“It’s the culture of our top clique of school to gather at that friend’s house, make sure you eat and drink in abundance, and then watch the speech and countdown before playing board games together,” he said.
“COVID made it difficult, but now it’s like before and it’s tearing apart. “
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