Year of the Tiger . . . or of Peace : ’86 Greeted With Revelry, Worship

Chinese students danced in Peking’s main plaza, Brazilians made silent offerings to a voodoo-like goddess at candlelit beaches and revelers worldwide filled public squares to welcome 1986. Pope John Paul II called for peace and brotherhood.

The year they greeted Wednesday has been declared the Year of Peace by the United Nations. In Japan, midnight also marked the end of the Year of the Ox and the beginning of the Year of the Tiger. Most other Asian nations will observe the change Feb. 9, the lunar new year.

In the Philippines, 15 people were killed and more than 600 wounded as Filipinos burned tires in the streets, exploded firecrackers and homemade bombs, and fired guns in midnight revelry, police and hospitals reported.

Arrested in London

In London, police said more than 120 people were arrested and nearly 300 suffered minor injures in Trafalgar Square, where up to 60,000 rowdy revelers greeted 1986 with singing, dancing and drinking. Police were warning people to stay away from the traditional celebration site because two women were crushed to death during New Year’s Eve celebrations three years ago.

In Zimbabwe, where steaks are traditional New Year’s fare, many families had to forgo outdoor barbecues because of a meat shortage. “It seems shocking. We are one of Africa’s few beef-exporting countries, but we can hardly buy any of it ourselves,” housewife Wendy Payne said.

The New Year was greeted by the popping of firecrackers throughout China, and about 300 students danced and sang in Peking’s huge Tian An Men Square.

Rio’s Beaches Aglow

Half a world away, Rio de Janeiro’s famed beaches were carpeted by glittering candles lit by tens of thousands of people, many of whom were gazing across the waves and making silent offerings to Iemanja, the most popular of many spirits worshiped in Brazil.

In Rome, the Pope in his New Year’s Eve Mass called for a united effort to break “the senseless spiral of violence” and wipe out crime and terrorism that “disfigure the face of our times.”

In a New Year’s message, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said the world is faced with a “rare opportunity” to search for peace.

Some leaders greeted the New Year by calling on all people to overcome world dangers.

In Moscow, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev said in a nationwide address that the people of the world are “in one boat in the nuclear age,” and called on everyone not to rock that boat. He said the Soviet Union will “do everything possible” to safeguard peace and avert the threat of nuclear war.

Decade of Peace

South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan said he fervently hopes that “all members of this global village will unite in brotherly love to build a decade of peace and cooperation.”

In Japan, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said his country will strive to prevent a global recession and seek to improve communication with the Soviet Union in 1986.