Which country celebrates New Year first and which country last?

On Earth, a day always lasts twenty-four hours. But with the celebration of New Year all over the world, the day lasts a little longer, twenty-five hours. The reason? A difference is the so-called International Date Line, which serves as the official starting and ending point for each day.

International Date Line

This became the International Date Line Introduced by a special convention in 1884, to prevent misunderstandings in the rapidly growing trade by ship and rail. If we look at a world map, you will see that the date line runs from north to south over the 180th meridian, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This means that the line is exactly on the other side of the Prime Meridian that passes through Greenwich, England, and from which we get our standard time in Europe, GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

Countries on the International Date Line are free to choose a side. Literature. That's why the line on the graph shows deviations.

This makes it even more confusing: countries determine their own local time. Although the world is theoretically divided into 24 time zones – one for each hour of the day – in practice we register. 38 different local times: Some countries' clocks deviate by half an hour or 45 minutes from standard world times such as UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, used in the US) and our GMT.

This map zooms in on the line of deviation of the International Date Line, clearly showing where on Earth one can first count to the New Year.

Which country celebrates New Year first?

With this important piece in mind, the big question is which country on earth will uncork the champagne first? That honor belongs to Kiribati, an island republic of 33 islands in Oceania. An observant map reader may have already noticed: Kiribati is located below Hawaii, but celebrates New Year's Eve a day earlier.

New Year's celebration is still fresh in all the islands of Kiribati. Because not too long ago, the International Date Line divided the island republic into two camps. It was only in 1995 that the government decided to introduce a single date for all 33 islands. To avoid misunderstandings, but from an economic point of view: this change had to attract more tourists who pride themselves on being the first on our planet to ring in the New Year.

Which country celebrates New Year last?

We have yet to complete the global New Year celebrations. Because where on earth do the last fire arrows burn? Actually, these are the American Baker Island and Howland Island, but these islands are uninhabited. That's why the islanders of Niue and American Samoa, located southwest of Kiribati, have the distinction of being the last to celebrate the first minutes of the New Year.

Previously, the island of Samoa (not to be confused with American Samoa) was one of the final parties. But the independent island nation decided in 2011 to align its local time zone with trading partners Australia and New Zealand. As a result, Samoa is not the last, but one of the first places on earth where the countdown to the new year can begin.