The year 2025 has begun in many parts of the Pacific.
The Republic of Kiribati has 3 time zones, of which Kiritimati Island (also known as Christmas Island) is the place to welcome the new day and also the New Year the earliest with the UTC+14 time zone. UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time, the global standard way of calculating time. Vietnam’s time zone is UTC+7. Kiribati’s capital Tarawa is in the time zone UTC+12, 2 hours behind Kiritimati. Kiribati has 33 atolls and stretches nearly 4,000 km from east to west and more than 2,000 km from north to south in the Pacific Ocean.
Most of New Zealand’s major cities such as Auckland and Wellington enter the new year at 6:00 p.m. Vietnam time. Next are the Australian cities of Canberra, Sydney or Melbourne, at 20:00, Vietnam time.
Fireworks display at the Sky Tower in Auckland (New Zealand)
Auckland and most of New Zealand celebrate New Year’s Eve at 6:00 p.m. on December 31, Vietnam time.
Northeast Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and North Korea celebrate New Year’s Eve at 10 p.m., Vietnam time. Following an hour later are China and the Philippines and Malaysia. Countries like Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar or Thailand have the same time zone as Vietnam.
New Year’s parade in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) on December 31, 2024
People marching in Phnom Penh on December 31, 2024
Unincorporated US territories such as Baker Island and Howland Island in the Pacific will be the last to celebrate the New Year. Due to its geographical location and special time zone calculation, Baker Island celebrates New Year’s Eve later than Kiritimati by… 26 hours.
Sydney fireworks early
Fireworks at 9 p.m. (local time) on New Year’s Eve December 31, 2024 in Sydney
In Sydney, family fireworks displays lit up the Opera House area and the wharf three hours before New Year’s Eve. According to the sheet The Guardianhundreds of thousands of people gather at the most vantage points around Sydney Harbor to admire the famous fireworks and light displays on New Year’s Eve each year.
Newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald It was reported that many people had camped in the area for more than 20 hours waiting for the New Year’s Eve fireworks display.
