It looks like it can’t be real, but I’m going to take the people at NASA at their word.

As of this afternoon, the spinning chunk of rock we inhabit is one- to two-and-a-half days of rotation from the year 2007. If you’re on the tiny Pacific atoll of Kiritimati (Christmas Island), you’ll be among the first to welcome it.

If you’re in the US, local “blue” laws preventing the sale or consumption of alcohol on a Sunday, which New Year’s Eve is this year, could but a serious damper on your party plans.

In honor of the coming New Year, the jet-setting folks at Condé Nast Traveler have rounded up a list of how 12:00 am, January 1 will be met in nine different places around the globe.

If your idea of how to celebrate a winter festival has less to do with astronomical phenomena, religious observance or gift-giving, and more with the “airing of grievances” and “feats of strength,” well then a merry Festivus to you.