Midnight is the handover point between one date and the next, and in Britain it is heard as much as seen — the Big Ben chimes on New Year's Eve, the pips on the radio, the moment a phone's date silently ticks over. Every countdown to a future day on this site ends at a midnight, because that is when a day legally and practically begins.
The hour matters most to people whose work does not stop at it. Hospital handovers, night freight, and the small hours of a bar shift all sit either side of twelve. Last trains out of the major cities have usually gone by now, leaving night buses and taxis; in London the Night Tube keeps running on Friday and Saturday.
It is also the cut-off for a surprising number of deadlines — online applications, entry forms, expiring offers and midnight tax filing all use it as an endpoint. Counting to the exact second removes any argument about whether something landed on one side of the date or the other.
Common questions
Which midnight does this countdown target?
The very next one — the moment today's date changes into tomorrow's, rather than any particular calendar day.
Is midnight 12 am or 12 pm?
It is written as 12 am, though because that trips people up, a countdown in hours and minutes is less ambiguous.
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