Who is toasting the New Year and when?

When we are sitting at lunch on December 31, people elsewhere are celebrating the turn of the year. Others are only ready when we wake up hungover on January 1.

When does the turn of the year begin elsewhere?

There are different time zones around the world. This is why the New Year starts 13 hours earlier on some islands in the Pacific Ocean than here in Central Europe. New Year's Day is twelve hours earlier in New Zealand and another ten hours earlier in eastern Australia. So, it goes on hour by hour towards the west. The last place to celebrate the New Year is American Samoa, which is a unincorporated territory of the United States. By then, it is already 12 a.m. on New Year's Day in Central Europe.

The thriller about Kiribati and the International Date Line

As is well known, the International Date Line is roughly following the 180.0° line of longitude. The island country of Kiribati was «intersected» by the International Date Line. When one part of Kiribati celebrated the New Year, the other part had to wait a whole day. So, in 1995, the date line was moved eastwards so that the same date applied to the entire archipelago. As a result, all the inhabitants of Kiribati have been the first to welcome in the New Year ever since.

Countries that celebrate on December 31

11:00 Kiribati
12:00 Fiji, New Zealand, Russia (parts), Samoa
13:00 Marshall Islands, Nauru, Russia (parts)
14:00 Australia (majority)
15:00 Australia (Queensland), Guam, Papua New Guinea, Russia (part)
16:00 Japan, Palau, South Korea
17:00 China, Philippines, Singapore
18:00 Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam
19:00 Bangladesch, Bhutan

Countries that celebrate on December 31

19:15 Nepal
19:30 India, Sri Lanka
20:00 Maldives, Pakistan
20:30 Afghanistan
21:00 Armenia, Georgia, La Réunion, Mauritius, Oman, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates
21:30 Iran
22:00 Africa (large parts), Bahrain, Iraq, Russia (part), Saudi Arabia, Turkey
23:00 Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, South Africa
00:00 Switzerland and 45 other countries, in addition to our neighboring countries also Gibraltar, Malta, Nigeria, Tunisia, Vatican

Countries that celebrate on January 1

01:00 Algeria, Faeroe Islands, Great Britain, Morocco
02:00 Cape Verde
03:00 Brazil (part), Greenland (part)
04:00 Argentina, Brazil (majority), Chile, Greenland (majority), Uruguay
04:30 Labrador Peninsula, Newfoundland
05:00 Canada (parts), Dominican Republic, Greenland (parts), Guadeloupe, Venezuela
06:00 Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, USA (parts)
07:00 Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico (parts), USA (parts)
08:00 Canada (parts), Mexico (parts), USA (parts)
09:00 Canada (parts), Mexico (parts), USA (parts)
10:00 Alaska, French Polynesia
11:00 Polynesia (remaining), Tahiti, USA (part)
12:00 American Samoa