New Year’s Eve is everybody’s and every cities excuse for a party. It is the ringing in of a new year with social gatherings spanning the transition of the year until midnight to welcome New Year’s Day. This holiday requires no specific race, religion, nationality, or gender for celebration. In fact, cities all over the world celebrate this holiday in unison. Here are some great New Year’s Eve parties around the world.

In Bangkok, the capital of Thailand you will be greeted by a 52 foot high Greeting Ball Tower that signals the arrival of midnight. Here, over 500,000 people gather to count down and watch the fireworks as the clock strikes midnight. Earlier in the day there are a plethora of concerts, beer, folk music, and parades.

Heading west to Berlin, Germany where huge parties are commonplace, Germans claim to have the largest New Year’s party in the world. About one million people gather, freezing temperature and all, in a 1.25 mile corridor between the Victory Column and the Brandenburg Gate. Throughout the night you can enjoy colorful laser shows, music, and fireworks. Germans also have an atypical tradition of pulling practical jokes on one another. And if the cold gets too cold for you, can duck into one of many party tents set up filled with warm heat, benches, brats and lot and lots of beer.

Further west we come to New Orleans who always does New Year’s the good old southern way.Twisting New York’s ball drop, New Orleans’s lit up gumbo pot drops from the Jax Brewery at midnight. The ringing in of midnight is not the end of the celebration at this point though, instead, its fall prompts a nightlong bar crawl through the French Quarter.

If you’re look for somewhere tropical warm to celebrate this holiday, head on over to Rio de Janeiro where the 2.5 mile stretch of Copacabana Beach hosts more than two million part goers decked out in all white. The locals make offerings of red roses and white gladioli to the goddess of the waters right before a whirl wind of dancing, fireworks, and music.

These are just four of the major celebrations happening on New Year’s Eve all over the world. Many other cities such as, Tokyo, New York City, Las Vegas, Reykjavik, Sydney, Hong Kong and Edinburgh also have a special spin on the holiday. So if you’re looking for a great party to ring in the New Year check out one of these cities.