Kiribati’s Christmas Island is first to welcome 2025

The Pacific island nation of Kiribati was the first place in the world to welcome 2025, leaving behind a year marked by ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and changes across the political landscape, from elections in the U.S. and the UK to the overthrow of Assad’s regime in Syria.

WATCH LIVE: New Year celebrations around the world

Kiribati, and specifically Christmas Island, is in the farthest forward timezone, which is 14 hours ahead of UTC, putting them at the same time as Hawaii except the date is one day ahead. This means that when it turned Wednesday in Kiribati it was still Monday in American Samoa.

Christmas Island, which is officially known as Kiritimati, is home to more than 7,000 people and used to be one of the last places in the world to welcome the new year. That changed in 1994, when the country jumped a full day ahead to use being first as a tourist draw.

New Zealand’s Chatham Islands and its more than 700 people hit midnight just 15 minutes later, making it the second-earliest place on Earth. The first major city to welcome the new year is Auckland in New Zealand at 1100 GMT (6 a.m. ET), along with Fiji, Tonga, and parts of Antarctica.

But perhaps the most unique way to welcome the new year is aboard the International Space Station, where astronauts have 15 opportunities to celebrate as they circle the globe at 17,500 miles per hour (28,163 km/h). The official time at the space station, however, is in UTC/GMT.

One of the biggest New Year’s Eve events will be taking place in Sydney, where a massive fireworks display will take place over the famous Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Other major events are taking place in Hong Kong, Dubai, London, and New York City. Events in Seoul have been canceled as South Korea marks 7 days of national mourning after Sunday’s deadly plane crash.