Some are impatient with the idea.
Others see it as just another evening.
Yet remains a reality: in a few hours, we will enter a new year... but not all at the same time.
While some will still be working on the final preparations, others will already be celebrating the New Year.
But which are the first countries to pass in 2023?
In this area, the Pacific islands are pioneers.
Part of the territories of Kiribati, and in particular the atoll of Kiritimati, celebrates the new year 13 hours ahead of France, as shown by the UTC time scale.
The small island is joined an hour later by other Pacific lands, such as Samoa, and New Zealand.
Next comes Australia, 10 hours behind Paris.
After a large majority of Oceania, it is the turn of Asia, with Japan and South Korea (+8 hours compared to France), Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and part of China (+7 hours), then Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam (+6 hours).
Many countdowns are therefore linked together throughout the continent, and this, to the other end of the planet.
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Nearby Pacific islands... and yet 24 hours of jet lag
In this race for the New Year, the back of the pack is... also in the Pacific.
Indeed, Tahiti and the island of Hawaii, in the United States, saber the champagne last, when it is already 11 am in France.
An astonishing difference, while Papeete is only about 2300 kilometers from Kiritimati.
Despite this small distance (on a planetary scale), the two territories have a 24-hour time difference.
Why such a discrepancy?
It results from the existence of time zones, created in 1884 during the Washington Conference, to standardize the time on all parts of the globe.
As the Sun does not illuminate all sides of the Earth at the same time, it was necessary to organize the schedules on a global level.
A starting point was therefore defined, the Greenwich meridian (the longitudinal zero point, which notably passes through London), from which the counting of time zones would begin.
24 have been defined on Earth, each representing one hour.
Fun fact: France, with its overseas territories, is the country with the most time zones (13), followed by the United States and Russia (11).