Kiritimati is often described as the first inhabited place to welcome the New Year.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is part of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean. It lies in the Line Islands, which use UTC+14, the world's most advanced civil time zone. That position places local midnight earlier than midnight in most other inhabited locations.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line eastward around its islands in 1994 and 1995. The change aligned the country's scattered island groups on the same calendar day and made the Line Islands among the first places to enter each new date.
“First” depends on the comparison being made: Kiritimati is an inhabited island and one of the earliest places to reach January 1, while other Pacific locations may share or closely approach that timing. The island's name comes from the English word “Christmas,” adapted to the Gilbertese alphabet.