Kiribati is among the first countries to enter each New Year because its Line Islands use the UTC+14 time zone.
Kiribati is an island country spread across a vast area of the central Pacific Ocean. Its territory includes the Line Islands, the Phoenix Islands, and the Gilbert Islands, which do not all share the same local time. Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is the best-known inhabited island in the UTC+14 zone.
Kiribati shifted the International Date Line in 1995 so that its eastern islands would share the same calendar date as the rest of the country. Before the change, parts of Kiribati could be separated by a calendar day despite belonging to one nation.
The phrase “first country to celebrate” is a shorthand: the exact order depends on the islands and time zones being compared. The Line Islands are among the earliest inhabited places to reach January 1, while other Kiribati islands enter the new year later.