Samoa and Tokelau Are Skipping December 30th

ocean_soul writes "Starting January 1, 2012 Samoa and Tokelau will be in time zone +13 instead of -11. This means there will be no December 30, 2011 in these countries. The decision to switch time zone was based on the changing international business relations of Samoa. Samoa had adopted the -11 time zone to make business with the U.S. easier. However, currently Samoa's most important trading partners are Australia and New Zealand. By switching time zone the work-weeks and week-ends on Samoa and Tokelau will be synchronized with those in Australia and New Zealand."

Comments

Re:SIgn of the "times"

[LostCluster]

This makes me wonder. Are people going to be paid/charged interest for a non-existing 12-30-11 there?

First Break in the Seven Day Week Cycle

[dbkluck]

According to wikipedia (admittedly with a "citation needed") the seven day week cycle has continued unbroken for almost two millenia, despite numerous readjustments in the date over the centuries. So although skipping even a whole bunch of dates is not unheard of (e.g., Thursday, October 4th, 1582 followed immediately by Friday, October 15th when the Gregorian calendar was adopted), this seems like the first time in a long time that the day after Thursday hasn't been Friday.

Re:SIgn of the "times"

[ceoyoyo]

Yes. Apparently they're paying people who were scheduled to work on Dec. 30. I assume they'll charge interest too.

Re:Your math does not calculate

[Penguin]

.. and cal even supports it:

$ cal 9 1752
September 1752
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

... however it's not that effective as locale is not taken into consideration. As your link mentions, "only" England+Scotland+colonies switched at that point.