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Another country enters the Eurozone.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Serbia's main oil refinery is allowed to reopen temporarily and we visit the town known for making Lunar New Year.
Chinese lanterns.
That's the sound of people in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia.
Midnight marked more than the start of 2026.
It was also the moment Bulgaria became the 21st country to join the Eurozone, almost 20 years after entering the European Union.
The country is saying goodbye to the lev, its currency for more than 140 years, and public opinion is divided.
Supporters say it will promote stability, boost the economy and reinforce ties to the West.
Opponents fear inflation, speculation and the loss of national sovereignty.
The people who spoke to the BBC at Sofia's New Year celebrations were confident for the future.
Many countries have adopted the euro, so there shouldn't be any particular difficulties relating to the euro, and I definitely support our entry.
This is the last part of our integration into the European Union.
I think the EU has given us a lot over the years, so I think it's a good step.
My expectations for the euro are positive.
I do not think there'll be anything to worry about, quite the opposite.
We will only benefit from this.
In my opinion, it will only be more useful for us than the old currency.
Our money will be in a different currency.
If I have 10,000 lever, now I'll have 5,100 euros.
It's all the same, and I think it'll be better.
Now, for the first month, both the lev and the euro can be used.
But from the 1st of February, the euro will be the only currency.
Our Central Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe has more.
Opinion polls split about 50-50.
On the whole younger, more urban people, people who've travelled widely in Europe, tend to be in favour.
More conservative people living in countryside and small towns and villages tend of course, this is a generalisation to be more worried about giving up the lev, their national currency, which is 144 years.
So it has been a symbol of national identity until now.
One of the things which should make this easier is that effectively two lever, the conversion rate is two lever to one euro.
I think it's actually 1.95883.
So people are worried about prices being rounded up.
To give an example, a kilo of potatoes cost 1.5 lever until midnight.
Now it's supposed to cost 77 euro cents and people are worried that it'll be rounded up to 80 or 100.
90 euro cents or even to one euro.
The government, aware of that concern, has imposed strong watchdog body.
People are able to complain if they feel they're being ripped off.
Nick Thorpe there.
Now the United States has granted a temporary license to a Serbian oil company that's majority owned by Russia, after it was caught up in sanctions linked to Moscow's war in Ukraine.
The measures targeted the petroleum industry of Serbia, known as NIS, as part of Washington's wider crackdown on Russia's energy sector, Serbia's only oil refinery, which supplies around 80 percent of the country's fuel reserves. was forced to shut in December.
Guy Delany reports from the Balkans for the BBC and I asked him just how important that refinery is to Serbia's economy.
Well, the refinery itself is terrifically important because in normal circumstances, it provides more than four-fifths of the petrol and diesel which is produced and used in Serbia.
And then you've also got the whole situation with Nis the company.
It's a very big employer, it's a very big contributor to Serbia's economy and the situation's been very concerning for everybody involved in Serbia.
I presume people are breathing a sigh of relief that it's getting a bit of a reprieve now.
Well, this is exactly what the government is saying.
That they're saying it's great news for the start of 2026.
You've heard that from the energy minister.
But we have to put this in context.
It's a temporary reprieve.
The US has given Nice a license to operate only until the 23rd of January.
And now, of course, they're going to have to scramble to get oil via Croatia's Yanaf pipeline into the refinery, produce the derivatives that they need petrol and diesel and hope that a longer-term solution to the situation is reached before that deadline expires.
So come 23rd January, that's the only plan, is that there's no other alternative?
Well, at the moment, we don't know any details of any alternatives.
What we do know is there's been a lot of talk.
Because, of course, the root of the problem is that the majority of Nice is owned by Russia's Gazprom group.
And that's why the US had placed Nice under sanctions.
The condition for lifting those sanctions on a full-time basis is that Gazprom group gets rid of its shares.
Now, there have been talks between Nice and potential buyers.
The buyers which have been floated include Hungary's national oil company and also the national oil company in Abu Dhabi.
So we're going to have to see what comes of those talks and if this reprieve reflects the fact that those talks have progressed.
Guy Delany speaking to me earlier.
In much of the world, this week has been a time of celebrations around Christmas and the New Year.
But in China, this is the run up to the most important traditional festival there, Chinese New Year, which is still five weeks away.
And for one village in the north of the country that means production is being ramped up to supply shops, restaurants and millions of people with some of the most important New Year items red lanterns.
Our China correspondent Stephen McDonald travelled to Tunto to see how it's done.
Walking around the streets of Tunto, you see evidence of lantern making wherever you look.
A view through an open door into a courtyard might reveal a small group of villagers making them by hand.
Down the main street, the red lanterns are piled up on top of one another.
Nobody seems to know just how many hundreds of years ago the craft started in this part of northern China.
But this one village produces a remarkable 80% of the country's lanterns.
In fact, if you're born in this part of Hebei province, you're immersed in lantern making from a very young age.
Su Cuijun runs one of the many family businesses here with her husband.
When you see others in your family doing it every day, you get the hang of it quickly.
I asked how old villages are when they start making lanterns.
Kids here can pick it up from around 10 years old.
The fabric for the lanterns being used here has been prepared by another family business down the road.
They've already put the symbols on there.
They could be fish or Chinese characters or whatever.
Then, after the fabric's delivered here, the workers will take these metal rods which have plastic circles attached to either end, and they'll expand the rods with the fabric over the top to form a lantern shape.
Then they're using a kind of glue gun to add gold trimmings.
Once the lantern takes shape...
Workers will walk outside where I am here and place the lanterns in the sun to dry.
Now, after they've spent a couple of hours out in the street, they're ready to then be collapsed again, to be placed in boxes by the dozen to be sent all over the country.
Trucks come through to pick up lanterns for delivery, which range from the size of a basketball to a small caravan.
We can make lanterns up to 20 metres tall without any problem.
72-year-old Bai Junping told us he switched from carpentry to lantern making as a young man because the pay was better.
Our village is indeed famous.
We're known as the Palace Lantern Village.
I asked how they felt about dedicating their lives to this.
Of course I feel proud of my work.
Our lanterns can even, at times, be shipped overseas.
An hour's drive from Tuntou in the city of Shijiazhuang.
The time for hanging lanterns to be lit up at night is upon us.
The most traditional form is the classic red palace lantern.
However, these days, there are also those shaped like huge Chinese gods or cartoon characters.
I asked one woman who joined the crowd photographing this year's lanterns why she liked them.
Firstly, because they look great.
Also, because this is part of our cultural heritage.
They are beautiful, don't you think?
Yes.
Chinese New Year isn't till February, but the presence of street lanterns is already building up to it, according to one man who'd come to see the lantern show.
We also hang lanterns in ordinary times, but of course the atmosphere is better during the New Year period, with more people out and about.
Back in Tuntou, lantern production is in full swing to meet the New Year orders.
In the future, modern production may find a way to match what this village can do by hand, offering the same diversity of options at a cheaper price.
But for now, it's this village which supplies China with its lanterns, keeping an important cultural symbol alive.
That was our China correspondent, Stephen McDonnell.
And just a reminder of our top story Bulgaria has joined the Eurozone and it's become the 21st country to do so, almost 20 years after entering the European Union.
And that's it from World Business Express, from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
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