The island of Kiritimati, also known as Christmas Island, is welcoming in the new year - the first place in the world do so.
It’s part of the Pacific Ocean nation Kiribati, located south of Hawaii and north-east of Australia. It is made up of several atolls - ring-shaped coral reefs - and spans almost 4,000km from east to west.
Kiribati - pronounced Kiribass - became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979. Home to the South Pacific’s largest marine reserve, many of the atolls are inhabited; most of them are very low-lying and at risk from rising sea levels as a result of global warming.
The archipelago has a population of about 116,000. Despite being almost directly south of Hawaii, Kiribati celebrates New Year a whole day earlier.
New Zealand’s remote Chatham Island sees in new year
Meanwhile, the 600-odd people who live on New Zealand’s Chatham Island (GMT +13:45) have become the next group to welcome 2026!
About a sixth of the population of the remote archipelago - mainly locals - are spending the last moments of 2025 at Hotel Chatham’s bar, its owner says.
But Toni Croon, who owns the hotel, tells me not everyone is staying up until the clock strikes midnight.
“Our team will be up ‘til daylight, but us oldies will be gone,” she says.
It will be the youngsters on the island, Toni predicts, who’ll have the willpower to stay up and watch this year’s first sunrise.
“What unites all of us is the love we have for this place. We’ll always have that in common,” says Toni.
“It’s special to welcome 2026 in such a remote and isolated place.”
Source: BBC
--Agencies
