Kiribati uses the Kiritimati time zone, making the country one of the first inhabited places to enter a new year.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is part of Kiribati's Line Islands. The islands use UTC+14, the world's furthest-forward civil time zone. As a result, midnight arrives there before it does in most other populated locations, although the exact order of New Year's celebrations depends on which locations and time zones are being compared.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line eastward around its islands in 1994. Before that change, the country's island groups were separated by different calendar dates, which complicated government and communications. The adjustment placed the Line Islands on the same side of the date line as the rest of the country.
Kiritimati is not the same place as the Caribbean island commonly called Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The spelling Kiritimati reflects the local pronunciation of “Christmas” and identifies the Pacific island in Kiribati.