Umayyad Square in Damascus hummed to the throngs of people brandishing "revolution" flags as Syria saw in the new year with hope following 13 years of civil war.
Gunshots rang out from Mount Qasioun overlooking the capital where hundreds of people gazed up at fireworks.
New Years Day 2025 was the first new year's celebration without an Assad in power for more than 50 years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December.
"Long live Syria, Assad has fallen," shouted some children.
"We did not expect such a miracle to happen, today the Syrians have found their smile again," Layane el Hijazi, a 22-year-old agricultural engineering student, said.
"We were able to obtain our rights, we can now talk. I am letting off steam these last three weeks and tonight by bringing out everything I had buried," she said.
Syria's civil war erupted in 2011 after the government brutally repressed pro-democracy protests triggering a devastating conflict that pushed millions to flee abroad and drew in foreign powers.
Despite the revelry, soldiers patrolled the streets of Damascus less than a month after Mr Assad's rapid demise.
The green, white and black "revolution" flag with its three red stars flies all over the capital.
Such a sight - the symbol of the Syrian people's uprising against the Assad dynasty's iron-fisted rule - was unthinkable a month ago.
Over 528,500 killed in Syrian civil war
The fall of Assad brought an end to more than half a century of unchallenged rule over Syria, where dissent was repressed and public freedoms were heavily curtailed.
More than 528,500 people were killed in the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor has said.
The overall toll includes thousands killed since 2011 that were only confirmed dead recently, with access to detention centres and mass graves easier following the rebel overthrow of Mr al-Assad.
The Britain-based monitory said 6,777 people, more than half of them civilians, were killed in 2024 in fighting in Syria.
AFP was unable to independently verify these figures.
Last year, 3,598 civilians, including 240 women and 337 children were killed across Syria, according to the observatory.
In addition, 3,179 combatants were killed, the monitor said, including soldiers from "the old regime", but also "Islamist armed groups" and jihadists.
In 2023, the observatory reported 4,360 people killed, including nearly 1,900 civilians.
Since 2011, the monitor with a network of sources inside Syria has recorded more than 64,000 deaths in Mr Assad's prisons "due to torture, medical negligence or poor conditions" in the jails.
'Fears have dissipated'
"Whatever happens, it will be better than before," said Imane Zeidane, 46.
"I am starting the new year with serenity and optimism," she said, adding that she has "confidence" in the new government under de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
She also remembers that new year's celebrations in previous years were "not like this".
"The joy is double now - you come down to celebrate the new year with your heart, and celebrate the hope it carries," she said.
The revolutionary song 'Lift your head, you are a free Syrian' by Syrian singer Assala Nasri rang out loud on Umayyad Square.
"Every year, we aged suddenly by ten years," taxi driver Qassem al-Qassem, 34, told AFP in reference to the tough living conditions in a country whose economy collapsed under Mr Assad.
"But with the fall of regime, all our fears have dissipated," he said.
"Now I have a lot of hope. But all we want now is peace."
"I hope that Syria in 2025 will be non-denominational, pluralist, for everyone, without exception," said Havan Mohammad, a Kurdish student from the northeast studying pharmacy in the capital.
