A look at the countries that celebrate New Year first and last
According to the Gregorian calendar, practically every country in the world celebrates New Year on the 1st of January every year at an interval of 364/365 days.
Even while the countdown begins just before midnight everywhere, not everyone will ring in the New Year 2024 at the same time. Here are the first and last countries to celebrate the New Year.
Kiritimati Island, popularly known as Christmas Island, and a group of 10 mostly uninhabited islands in the central Pacific Ocean will be the first to welcome 2024, about a full day earlier than the rest of the world.
People in Tonga and Samoa will similarly change their calendars to 1 January, 2024, at 11 am GMT, before many people in the West wake up on 31 December.
The other countries in line to enter New Year are: New Zealand, Australia, and South Korea.
The last inhabited places to celebrate are the islands of Niue and American Samoa in the South Pacific, southwest of Kiribati.
The uninhabited Howland and Baker Islands, adjacent to the United States, will be the last place on the earth to enter 2024.