While crossing into a new year is a one-second event: from midnight to New Year, it actually takes 26 hours every year for the whole world to officially cross into a new year.
On Sunday, December 31, at 1pm, Kenyans were still far from celebrating New Year's day yet in Kiritimati, part of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, the people were already popping their fireworks, becoming the first country in the world to see 2024.
This was not always the case for the island nation, which has a population of a little over 133,000 people. The country is comprised of 33 atolls, 20 of which are inhabitable, and before 1994, time in Kiribati was split across two days.
The government of Kiribati adjusted that for economic and administrative reasons so that the country now lies across three time zones. Since 1995, the country has been celebrating New Year's First and was also able to capitalise on this fact in the year 2000 when tourists flocked to the Line Islands to be the first people on earth to see the new millennium.
The island country is therefore set to make a killing (in foreign earnings) at every turn of a century and millennium unless, of course, another country changes their time zones in future.
There are many jokes about the country being already tomorrow in Australia, so in most people's minds, Australia celebrates New Year first, but Sydney, one of its largest cities, celebrates new year's at 4pm December 31 Kenya time, becoming one of the first major cities to do so.
New Year celebrations in Australia are a massive event, with crowds turning out in huge numbers this year in Sydney to celebrate. The Guardian reported that more than 8,500 kilograms of fireworks were popped, alongside 80,000 pyrotechnic effects that were met with cheers from the massive crowds. People queued for as long as 17 hours in order to secure a great spot to watch the events.
The Asian nations of Japan, South Korea and North Korea were next, celebrating New Year's at 6pm Kenya time. Unfortunately, Japan's New Year celebrations were hampered by a series of major earthquakes, prompting a tsunami warning, with one of the earthquakes having a preliminary magnitude of 7.6. People were urged to leave costal areas, as waves that were 5 meters high were predicted, according to the Japan Times.
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Sudan all belong to the East Africa Time zone, meaning we all celebrated New Year together. Surprisingly, Nairobi also shares the same time with Istanbul in Turkey and Moscow in Russia. As is tradition, in Nairobi many people thronged churches, beaches and entertainment spots to celebrate the turn of the new year. "Shusha Nyavu' came close to becoming the New Year's tagline as the much-awaited concert by Christina Shusho put together by Churchill and team took place at Garden City Mall.
At exactly the same time in Istanbul, the streets lit up with celebrations as well as Moscow. While establishments hold their own New Year's events, in Istanbul, the streets also turn into party spots, with thousands of people celebrating all night long, as grand displays of fireworks, as has come to be common all around the world now, light up the night.
The United States is among the last countries in the world to celebrate New Year's. The contiguous US has 4 standard time zones, although that turns into nine standard time zones when you take into account its territories and other US possessions.
The US has one of the most famous New Year's events known as the ball drop at Times Square in New York. This year, the event had over 1 million people attending live to witness it, was watched by over a billion people in the US. It is an often referenced occasion in Hollywood movies.
The ball is made of crystal and electric lights and is placed on top of a pole, which is 77 feet, or 23 meters, high, according to timeanddate.com. "At one minute before midnight on December 31, the ball is lowered slowly down the pole. It comes to rest at the bottom of the pole at exactly midnight. The event is shown on television across the United States and around the world. The event has been held every year since 1907, except during World War II," reads the site.
Interestingly, Samoa used to be among one of the last countries in the world to celebrate New Year's, until the country changed time zones in 2011, which the National Geographic says was done to align with its trading partners New Zealand and Australia, and are now one of the first.
The last countries in the world to celebrate New Year's are Hawaii, American Samoa (different from Samoa) and other US islands. American Samoa celebrated New Year's on January 1st, 2pm Kenyan time, a full 14 hours behind of Kenya. These are the last inhabited places on earth to celebrate New Year's.
The real last places on earth to welcome the new year are uninhabited, and these are the US territories of Baker Island and Howland Island, which see the turn of the new year on January 1st, 3pm Kenyan time.
