Kiribati is among the first countries to celebrate New Year's Day because of its Line Islands time zone.
Kiribati is an island country spread across a huge area of the central Pacific Ocean. Its Line Islands, including Kiritimati, use UTC+14, the world's most advanced civil time zone. Consequently, midnight arrives there before it does in most other inhabited places.
The country moved the International Date Line for its eastern islands in 1995 so that all of Kiribati would share the same calendar day. Kiritimati is therefore frequently mentioned in New Year's coverage as one of the first inhabited locations to enter the new year.
This fact does not mean every part of Kiribati reaches midnight at the same instant: the country spans three island groups and uses more than one time zone. News reports often simplify the point by naming Kiribati, while the Line Islands provide the especially early time-zone position.