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Event Information:
For many years, revellers
celebrating the start of a New Year
have gathered on Trafalgar square,
despite a lack of civic celebrations
being arranged for them. The lack of
official events in the square was
partly because the authorities were
concerned that actively encouraging
more partygoers would cause
overcrowding.
Watch the London new year fireworks
live stream online
Since 2005, a firework display
centred on London Eye and the South
Bank of the Thames near the Square
has given spectators a fitting start
to the New Year.
There has been a Christmas ceremony at
Trafalgar Square every year since 1947. A
Norway Spruce (or sometimes a fir) is given
by Norway's capital Oslo and presented as
London's Christmas tree, as a token of
gratitude for Britain's support during World
War II. (Besides the general war support,
Norway's Prince Olav, as well as the
country's government, lived in exile in
London throughout the war.) As part of the
tradition, the Lord Mayor of Westminster
visits Oslo in the late autumn to take part
in the felling of the tree, and the Mayor of
Oslo then comes to London to light the tree
at the Christmas ceremony.
The square is
famous for its feral pigeons, and feeding
them is a popular activity with Londoners
and tourists. The National Portrait Gallery
displays a 1948 photograph of Elizabeth
Taylor posing there with bird seed so as to
be mobbed by birds. The desirability of the
birds' presence has long been contentious:
their droppings look ugly on buildings and
damage the stonework, and the flock,
estimated at its peak to be 35,000, was
considered to be a health hazard. In 1996,
police arrested one man who was estimated to
have trapped 1,500 birds for sale to a
middleman; it is assumed that the birds were
being trapped to be eaten
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