Samoans celebrate New Years' Day

The New Year’s Eve parties started a whole day early on the South Pacific island nation of Samoa, after a hop across the international date line transported the country 24 hours "into the future" – making it the first in the world to ring in the new year.

Samoans began celebrating under a rainbow of fireworks at the stroke of midnight on Thursday, December 29 – when the country skipped over Friday and moved straight into 12:01am on December 31.