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New Year is about to come. People have started preparations for the New Year. But have you ever tried to know which country celebrates the New Year first?
New Year is about to come and people all over the world are making preparations. But do you know which country on earth celebrates New Year first? The answer is Kiribati! This small island nation is situated in the Pacific Ocean and being in the UTC+14 time zone, midnight of the New Year occurs first here. Especially on Kiritimati Island (also known as Christmas Island), people welcome January 1 first.
New Year celebrations in Kiribati are very enthusiastic. People burst crackers, perform traditional dances, organize big feasts in the community and offer prayers in churches. Thousands of people gather at Kiritimati to enjoy music, songs and happiness. However, this celebration is not as grand as that of big cities like Sydney or New York. In 1995, the Government of Kiribati moved the International Date Line eastward so that the entire country would have the same date. The advantage of this was that Kiribati became the first country in the world to celebrate New Year.
Miracle of time zone
There are 38 different time zones in the world, so New Year takes 26 hours to reach the entire globe. After Kiribati, celebrations begin in Tonga, Samoa and Chatham Islands of New Zealand. Then New Year is celebrated in Australia, Japan, India and the rest of the world. New Year comes last in American Samoa and Baker Island (uninhabited). The interesting thing is that Samoa (Independent) and American Samoa are very close. There is a distance of just a few hours between the two. But due to time zone the difference comes to 25-26 hours. Some tourists and local people, after celebrating New Year in Samoa, go to American Samoa and celebrate again, that is, these people celebrate New Year twice in the same year.
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