Who Celebrates New Year's Eve First on Earth: Chrono-geography of the Holiday Introduction: the line of date change as a temporal meridian Contrary to intuitive expectations, New Year's Eve is not celebrated first in Australia or Japan, but in small island states located west of the Line of Date Change (International Date Line, IDL). This conditional line, mainly passing through the 180th meridian, is the boundary where the change of calendar date occurs first. Due to geopolitical and economic considerations, the actual configuration of the line has significant deviations, which determine the complex picture of the "New Year's race" around the planet. First of the holiday: the islands of Christmas and New Zealand 1. Absolute champion: Christmas Island (Christmas), Republic of Kiribati.For a long time, the issue of primacy was controversial due to the location of the IDL. In 1995, the government of Kiribati made a historic decision: to shift the line of date change far to the east in its exclusive economic zone. The goal is to make all islands of the state (spreading over 3,5 thousand km) live in one calendar day. As a result, Christmas Island (part of the Line Islands), located in the UTC+14 time zone, became the easternmost point of the Earth in chronological terms. Fact: When it's noon on December 31 in London (UTC), it's already 2:00 on January 1 on Christmas Island. Thus, its residents start celebrating 14 hours earlier than London and 26 hours earlier than American Samoa, which celebrates New Year's Eve last. Features: The population of the island is about 7,000 people. Traditions combine Christian (mass services) and local rituals with songs and dances. Due to its isolation, this event does not have global media visibility. 2. Second, but the most famous: New Zealand and its dependent territories.The main territory of New Zealand (time zone UTC+13, and in the summer period — UTC+13/UTC+14) and its dependent territories celebrate New Year next after Kiribati. C ... Read more