&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "2026 is here! Kiribati Islands enters New Year as clock strikes midnight in world's easternmost inhabited region")
The New Year is here, with Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in Kiribati, which lies in the world’s earliest time zone, seeing the the clock strike past midnight, heralding the arrival of 1 January 2026. This is followed by other islands across the Asia–Pacific region and Oceania.
The first places to welcome the New Year
The Republic of Kiribati, specifically its Line Islands, is usually the first place where a new day begins. Kiritimati (Christmas Island) is the earliest inhabited location to enter the New Year, as it is located in the UTC+14 time zone, the world’s most easterly time zone, just west of the International Date Line.
Caroline Island, also known as Millennium Island, lies slightly farther east within the same time zone. While it can technically be the first land to catch the sun’s rays depending on latitude and conditions, it is essentially uninhabited.
Also read: January 2026 holiday calendar: Festivals, public holidays, and long weekends you shouldn’t miss
Why Kiritimati Island is first to greet each new day
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Kiribati adjusted its time zones in 1995 to unify the country under a single calendar day and to ensure that the Line Islands would be the first to welcome each new day and year. Kiritimati Island, the most populated of the Line Islands, is therefore widely recognised as the first inhabited place to welcome 1 January.
Where else does the New Year arrive early in 2026?
After Kiribati, other Pacific nations such as Tonga, Samoa, and New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands) enter the New Year soon afterwards. While some Antarctic regions may experience continuous daylight during the southern summer, Kiribati holds the distinction among inhabited places.
World set to welcome 2026
Below is an approximate list showing when 1 January 2026 begins in selected locations, expressed in Indian Standard Time (IST). These times indicate the arrival of the New Year at midnight local time, not local sunrise.
Chatham Islands, New Zealand — 3:45 pm IST
Wellington, New Zealand — 4:30 pm IST
Fiji — 5:30 pm IST
Sydney, Australia — 6:30 pm IST
Tokyo, Japan — 8:30 pm IST
Beijing, China — 9:30 pm IST
Dhaka, Bangladesh — 11:30 pm IST
Kathmandu, Nepal — 11:45 pm IST
Moscow, Russia — 2:30 am IST
Paris, France — 4:30 am IST
United Kingdom — 5:30 am IST
New York, United States — 10:30 am IST
