Kiritimati is among the first inhabited places to celebrate New Year’s Day because it uses UTC+14, the world’s most advanced time zone.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is part of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean. Its position on the eastern side of the International Date Line places it ahead of most of the world by calendar date. When midnight arrives there, many countries are still on December 31.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line around its territory in 1994 so its islands would share the same working week and calendar date. As a result, the Line Islands, including Kiritimati, became especially famous for being among the first inhabited areas to enter a new year.
Kiritimati should not be confused with Australia’s Christmas Island, which is a separate island in the Indian Ocean and observes a different time zone.