Pacific Islands of Tonga and Samoa Become First Nations to Bid Good Riddance to 2020

Don’t be too jealous—but the Pacific islands of Tonga, Samoa, and Kiritimati have already reached the end of this wretched year. The government of Samoa posted a livestream of its firework display from the capital of Apia, where New Year’s Day is always celebrated first. The islands’ celebrations were then followed an hour later in New Zealand, where its unofficial ambassador, Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords, tried to assure the world that 2021 seemed fine—so far. He wrote on Twitter: “Exactly a year ago we were thanking fuck that 2019 was over! Happy 2021 from NZ. So far, 5 mins in and it seems okay.”