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The government of Samoa, one of the islands of the South Pacific, has announced that it will move the international dateline in order to shift it to a time zone aligned with nearby New Zealand.
At the moment, the state formerly known as Western Samoa, is a day behind both Australia and New Zealand, but relies heavily on both countries for trade. 2 business days are lost each week because of the weekend. Short notice visits to either country are made difficult because of the visa requirements. It is almost impossible to get a visa processed quickly because of the weekend overlap.
The international dateline follows the line of 180 degrees latitude, however it deviates in several places in order to avoid dividing nations including Russia, across two different days. No international agreement exists for how the dateline should run, meaning that its path is at the discretion of nations and their territories affected. International waters use the nautical dateline which runs from pole to pole, but is superceded by local time in territorial waters.
Samoan Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sailele believes there will also be a tourist spin-off from the move, with visitors able to travel between time zones in Samoa and American Samoa in less than one hour – meaning that birthdays and anniversaries could be celebrated twice. On the other hand, the Samoan village of Falealupo, traditionally regarded as the entrance to the spirit world, will no longer be renowned as the last village on earth to see the sun set each day.
Samoa previously had moved the dateline so that it could be closer to California time, under pressure from American traders back in 1892. That year saw 2 4th of Julys and no doubt the visitors celebrated twice!
Further north, the New Zealand territory of Kiribati was the last to change, in 1995. The country, a group of small islands, had recently gained independence (1979) and acquired 2 islands from the United States. It became the only nation to be divided by the dateline (it still is on most maps). Government offices in different parts of the islands only worked 4 simultaneous days each week making administration of the islands slow and inefficient. The compulsary broadcasting of Sunday Hymns, a single state broadcaster and two Sundays apparently proved too much for the population and they also shifted the dateline east, an event seemingly disregarded by most cartographers.
The change is expected to take place on 29th December 2011. That would be the first 29th December, not the second one, we believe.
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Related articles
- Samoa leaps dateline: how time zones work (telegraph.co.uk)
- Samoa goes back to the future as it slips across dateline to boost economy (telegraph.co.uk)
- Samoans set to do some time travelling. (adelaidegreenporridgecafe.blogspot.com)
- Samoa Is Going Time Traveling (newser.com)
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