Warning issued over New Year’s greetings amid Sydney coronavirus outbreak

Victorians are being warned to welcome in the New Year very differently as COVID fears linger.

Melburnians are being warned to bring in the New Year very differently. Picture: Tim Carrafa

New Year kisses and hugs should be off limits for anyone but immediate family members, the state government has warned, amid vigilance after Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak.

Revellers have been urged to carry hand sanitiser to end-of-year festivities, physically distance from strangers and pop on a mask if they are in a crowd.

“Take some hand sanitiser with you, don’t share drinks with others and Happy New (Year) kisses and hugs should be shared with those in your immediate family,” a government spokeswoman said.

The advice comes as the government asks the community not to “say farewell to the great habits we have made part of our everyday”.

“Just as Christmas was a little different this year, New Year’s Eve will be too,” a government spokeswoman said.

Despite Melbourne’s fireworks being cancelled, thousands of punters will head to the city for a food explosion as feasts replace pyrotechnics to celebrate the arrival of 2021. It will be among the quietest year-enders Melbourne has seen without the annual display or entertainment in the CBD.

But Melbourne’s city will be transformed into a food and culture hub with restaurants hosting hordes of diners to ring in the new year.

Bars and nightclubs were still planning packages and DJ sets.

Tickets were selling fast to Melbourne’s first New Year Street Feast, running over two days — 31 of 53 restaurants had either sold out or only had a few spots left on Saturday.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said even though the fireworks had been cancelled, “you don’t have to spend the night on the couch with takeaway”.

She said her team had “booked almost every outdoor umbrella in Victoria to help prepare for all weather conditions” to transform the city’s laneways into European-inspired piazzas.

“While we won’t have fireworks lighting up the sky at midnight we can still celebrate each other and everything we’ve achieved as a community this year,” Cr Capp said.

She expected Street Feast tickets would “be in demand so I’m encouraging everyone to plan ahead and book online”.

Outside the CBD, DJ John Course is hosting his own five-hour NYE gig with vocalist Zoe Badwi at Port Melbourne’s The Timber Yard.

The Yarra River is still the place to be with bars Riverland, Arbory Afloat, Boatbuilder’s Yard and Left Bank hosting waterfront parties.

Even though Melbourne’s fireworks display, which usually brings 400,000 people into town, was not happening this year, Victorians could still see the night sky light up from their television screens with Sydney going ahead with its annual show.

Melbourne public transport will be free for 12 hours from 6pm on New Year’s Eve.

Sarah and Jamie Galbraith celebrate Noon Year’s Eve with their children Lachie and Olivia. Picture: Mark Stewart

PARTY TIME WHEN THE CLOCK STRIKES ... NOON

Staying up until midnight to ring in the new year can be a struggle at the best of times, but factor in a world weary from a pandemic and it’s likely many people will be turning in early to hasten in 2021.

As such, ‘Noon Year’s Eve’ is set to catch on, with families opting to count down to 12pm rather than 12am.

Port Melbourne parents Sarah and Jamie Galbraith plan to gather some friends and toast the start of a new year in the middle of the day instead of the end.

“Staying up until midnight is way too hard these days and this is a nice option to involve the whole family and our friends,” Sarah says.

With children, Lachie, 5, and Olivia, 3, and another on the way, she says New Year’s Eve has been more sedate of late for the pair.

“Since having kids it seems like a lifetime ago (that) we have stayed up until midnight. This has been a challenging year and we have lots to look forward to in 2021 including a new baby on the way, hopefully a normal school year for our son Lachie who is starting prep, and the hope of international borders opening up once the vaccine is rolled out in Australia, so we can see my parents, brother and friends in Canada.”

Spotlight’s Nick Casey says the retailer has experienced a surge in interest in decorating for the event. “’Noon Year’s Eve’ is a great way to involve the entire family and bring some fun, colour and sparkle into living rooms and backyards all over the country,” he says.

- Kim Wilson

Emma Murray is the founder of a practice called High Performance Mindfulness (HPM). Picture: Nicki Connolly

WHY WE SHOULD DITCH NEW YEAR PROMISES

Dustin Martin’s mindfulness coach Emma Murray wants New Year’s resolutions to be given the boot.

Murray (below), a high-performance mindfulness coach who works with the Richmond Football Club, motor racing ace Scott McLaughlin, Formula Three champion Oscar Piastri and Olympians including Cate Campbell and Morgan Mitchell, says the dreaded New Year resolutions set people up to fail.

She believes people should adopt positive habits to help change their behaviour rather than make unrealistic, pointless pledges.

“The way our mind works is we think a date on a calendar is all of a sudden going to make us feel better — ‘if I can get through Christmas and I can get to the new year then everything is going to be OK — like because it is January 1 the fatigue is erased and the grind is gone,” Murray said.

“It does not actually work like that.

“Coming off the year we have had, I am genuinely concerned about the number of New Year resolutions that we are going to be making and that we are actually setting ourselves up to fail. We make a whole lot of resolutions and by the second week of the year we have broken them all.”

As an alternative to resolutions, Murray will launch 21 days of “High Performance Habits” on her Instagram @highperformance mindfulness on January 1.

“I have taken the top 21 habits that I bring into the lives of a lot of my elite athletes and some of them are really simple like putting your feet on the floor in the morning and grounding yourself into the day,” she said.

- Fiona Byrne