Have you ever wondered how time affects things, for example if we are all in different time zones then when Santa Clause is running around or rather riding around desperately trying to deliver our presents which countries children gets them first. Now if you’re a purist and you say by the power of our magic, then surely everyone gets their presents at the same time. However, what if you, like the rest of us are more jaded and wonder if our different time zones affect things? Well, that is a question that perplexed many of us here at Sir Holiday and so we thought about it and couldn’t get to an answer, because you know magic is involved. But there is no magic involved in New Year’s Eve and we couldn’t help but wonder who gets to greet the coming year first? Well, let us find out.

Well, the obvious answer for who would get it first is of course, those folks from the land down under with their kangaroos, koalas, and endless menagerie of deadly animals. However, it might surprise you to find out that it is not actually Australia that is the first country to say hello to the New Year. No, in fact it is actually an island within the Pacific Ocean. Tonga Island will break in the New Year first at 10am GMT – or Greenwich Mean Time, this is in fact quite a while before Australia will be nearing the countdown.

How much farther are they in front of Australia, I hear you ask, three hours to be exact. That means Australia still has three more hours of partying, three more hours of being at the wedding of the people who couldn’t pick a more inconvenient date to hold a wedding than New Year’s Eve and three more hours of dodging people who are still trying to keep the Christmas mistletoe tradition alive.

Who receives New Year’s last? Well, after New Year’s has travelled from China through to South Africa and all the way through the Americas to New York, it has to find its last little spot. Where is the last place, well unfortunately it is uninhabited by humans but Baker Island and Howland Island will get to welcome the New Year in last. Where is the last place which is actually inhabited by humans, well to settle your curiosity we will spill the beans. It is none other than American Samoa.

This particular piece of planet Earth is mere miles from Tonga and so it all ends roughly where it began. Which begs the question can you take a flight from Tonga on New Year’s after the midnight countdown and still make it in time for the midnight countdown on American Samoa? The answer is, of course, yes! You would be legitimately able to countdown to 2018 twice if that is what your heart desired thanks to the advent of technology, isn’t the twenty first century, great?

For all of your holiday information and more, visit Sir Holiday today.

Tonga

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/01/13/19/33/tonga-1138795_960_720.jpg

American Samoa flag

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/08/28/18/45/international-2690817_960_720.jpg