Kiribati is a country made up of 33 atolls and islands spread across the central Pacific Ocean. An atoll is a ring of coral reef that sticks up just above the sea, with a calm lagoon in the middle — like a giant natural swimming pool. Most of Kiribati's islands sit very close to the equator, where the sun rises and sets at nearly the same time every day of the year.
Because Kiribati stretches so far east and west, the government decided to put all the islands in the same time zone — even the ones that are very far apart. This means that when clocks tick over to midnight on New Year's Eve, Kiribati is the very first country in the world to celebrate. People there watch fireworks go off while the rest of the world is still waiting for the old year to end!
The idea of being first to see the sun has become a proud part of Kiribati's identity. The country's name is not said the way it looks in English — 'Kiribati' is pronounced 'Kiribas', because in the local Gilbertese language the letters 'ti' make a 's' sound. So the name itself is a little puzzle, just waiting to be solved!