2025 begins in Kiribati: Kiritimati Island leads global New Year celebrations | Order of how countries enter 2025
PTC Web Desk: As the world eagerly prepares to welcome 2025, the Pacific island nation of Kiribati has already ushered in the New Year, becoming the first region on Earth to celebrate January 1. Kiritimati Island, also known as Christmas Island, marked the occasion with fireworks, music, and joyous festivities, setting the tone for celebrations worldwide.
Kiritimati: The first to ring in 2025
Located in the central Pacific Ocean, Kiritimati operates 14 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and 8.5 hours ahead of Indian Standard Time (IST). This time difference allowed the island to step into 2025 at 3.30 pm IST on December 31, 2024. Residents celebrated with vibrant displays of fireworks and community events, embracing the arrival of the New Year with warmth and optimism.
The festive mood on this small island reflects its unique position as the starting point of global New Year celebrations, a distinction it enjoys annually due to its time zone advantage.
Global timeline of celebrations
Following Kiribati, the New Year gradually spreads across the globe, with regions celebrating in line with their respective time zones. The Chatham Islands of New Zealand were the next to welcome 2025, just 15 minutes after Kiritimati, followed by New Zealand’s mainland and other Pacific islands like Tokelau and Tonga.
By the time Kiribati was celebrating, many regions, including India, were still in the final hours of preparing for their own New Year festivities. The timeline of how countries enter 2025 illustrates the diversity of time zones worldwide:
3:30 PM IST: Kiribati
4:30 PM IST: New Zealand
5:30 PM IST: Fiji, parts of Russia
6:30 PM IST: Most of Australia
8:30 PM IST: Japan, South Korea
9:30 PM IST: China, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines
11:30 PM IST: India, Sri Lanka
1:30 AM IST: UAE, Oman, Azerbaijan
3:30 AM IST: Greece, South Africa, Cyprus
4:30 AM IST: Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland
5:30 AM IST: UK, Ireland, Portugal
8:30 AM IST: Brazil, Argentina, Chile
9:30 AM IST: Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Venezuela
10:30 AM IST: US East Coast (New York, Washington D.C.)
11:30 AM IST: Mexico, parts of Canada and the US
1:30 PM IST: US West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco)
3:30 PM IST: Hawaii, French Polynesia
4:30 PM IST: Samoa
With 38 distinct local times in play, the New Year takes 26 hours to complete its journey across the globe. From the Pacific islands to the Americas, each region adds its cultural flavour to this worldwide event, uniting people in a shared celebration.
- With inputs from agencies
