The day Samoa skipped: why 30 December 2011 never existed

Samoa went to bed on Thursday, 29 December 2011, and woke up on Saturday, 31 December. Friday the 30th simply didn’t happen there. The country had moved to the other side of the International Date Line, and the calendar had to catch up.

The short answer to why: Samoa trades mostly with New Zealand and Australia, and its clocks sat a day behind them. Moving the date line fixed that.

What changed on the clocks

The switch took Samoa from UTC−10 to UTC+14, a jump of 24 hours. Before it, Samoa was among the last places to see each day’s sunset. After it, it became one of the first to see the day begin.

The country’s prime minister at the time, Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi, gave the reason in plain numbers: according to The Register’s report, he said that over 90 percent of Samoan people emigrate to New Zealand and Australia. For business and for families split across the water, a one-day gap was a daily problem. On Sydney’s Friday, Samoa was still on Thursday.

It wasn’t the first time

Samoa had been on the American side of the line for more than a century. According to the same report, American traders persuaded Samoans to make the original switch in 1892, and the story goes that the year had two consecutive Fourth of July celebrations. The 2011 move undid that decision.

The cost of a missing day

Not everyone was happy. Critics in the legislature worried about losing a tourist hook: Samoa had been marketed as one of the last places on Earth to see the sun set each day. Workers who would have been scheduled on the vanished Friday were reportedly paid for it anyway, and anyone born on 30 December had a birthday to lose.

The practical side was smoother than feared. Mobile operator Digicel reported only a brief outage, about 15 minutes, while its systems updated.

If you’re planning a trip

• Check flight dates carefully. Crossing the date line can make a flight appear to land before it took off. Confirm the arrival date on the ticket, not just the hour.
• Mind the time difference with home. Check it with a time converter for your travel dates.
• Look up the current time zone before booking. Time rules are decided by governments and can change again, so confirm them on an official source.

The date line is a political choice, not a natural one, which is why a country can redraw its side of it.

Frequently asked questions

Did Samoa really skip a day?

Yes. It skipped 30 December 2011, going from Thursday 29 to Saturday 31 December.

Why did Samoa change the date?

To align its calendar with trading partners New Zealand and Australia, where most Samoan emigrants live.

Which time zone does Samoa use now?

It moved from UTC−10 to UTC+14 in 2011. Confirm the current offset on an official source before you travel, since governments can change it.

Sources

• Samoa and the International Date Line, The Register, 30 December 2011: the date skipped, the UTC−10 to UTC+14 move, the prime minister’s statement, the 1892 switch and the Digicel outage.
• Samoa skips a day and crosses international dateline, English Online: confirmation of the dates and the reasons for the move.

Time zone rules change. Check the current offset on an official source before you travel.