Kiribati celebrates New Year's Eve on Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island.
Kiritimati is part of the Republic of Kiribati and lies in the central Pacific Ocean. It uses UTC+14, the world's most advanced civil time zone, so its residents are among the first people to reach midnight in a new calendar year. This makes Kiritimati a frequent subject in explanations of where the new year begins.
The island's name is the Gilbertese form of “Christmas,” reflecting the pronunciation of the English word in the Gilbertese language. It should not be confused with Australia's Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, which is a separate territory far to the west.
Time-zone boundaries are set by governments and can be changed, so “first” claims depend on the current legal time-zone arrangement. Kiritimati's date-line position is also shaped by Kiribati's decision in 1995 to move its eastern islands to the same calendar day as the rest of the country.