Which Country Will Celebrate New Year 2024 First & Last? Know Places Where January 1 Starts Before Other Countries

The world is all set to welcome the New Year 2024. First celebrated on January 1, 153 BCE, in Rome, the occasion of New Year is now widely celebrated in India and around the world. Since the world is divided into 24 main time zones, the New Year 2024 celebrations shall begin at different time in different country. If you are wondering which country will welcome the New Year 2024 first and last, this article is for you.

Before we find out which country celebrates the New Year first and last, let's have a look at brief history of NY celebrations. Long time ago, many Romans would mark the beginning of a New Year on March 1. A solar-based calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE, maintained January 1 as the New Year's day. This calendar was widely adopted in the Roman Empire. The Georgian calendar was introduced in 1582 and it had January 1st marked as the New Year.

Which country celebrates the New Year 2024 first

Kiribati, a country in Oceania, is the country that will celebrate the New Year 2024 first. January 1, 2024, in Kiribati's Kiritimati Island, also known as Christmas Island, will start at 10 am GMT or 3:30 pm as per Indian Standard Timing on December 31. Tonga and Samoa will ring in the New Year 2023 at 11 am GMT. After them, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and South Korea will welcome the New Year 2024.

Which country will celebrate the New Year 2024 last

American Samoa, an island nation in the South Pacific, will be the last inhabited place to farewell 2023 celebrate the New Year 2023.

If we include uninhabited territories, Baker Island and Howland Island, which are part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, are technically the last to celebrate the new year at 12 pm GMT on January 1st, or 5:30 pm IST on January 1.