島國薩摩亞“丟掉”一天 提早迎接新年

If you are reading this on Friday you cannot be in Samoa.

Friday, December 30, has been cut this year for the tiny South Pacific island nation as it ditched a time-zone alliance with the United States and moved its time zone 24 hours ahead to catch up with Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

On New Year's Eve, Samoa will have jumped to the west of the international dateline, which runs zig-zags through the Pacific Ocean and broadly follows the 180 degree line of longitude, in a move Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said would make it easier for Samoa to trade with key partners.

"No longer shall we have people ringing us up on Monday from New Zealand and Australia thinking it is Monday when we are closing our eyes and praying at churches. And vice versa on our Fridays when we ring up and already our contacts are holidaying on their Saturdays," he told Radio New Zealand on Friday.

"It will remove the enormous amount of confusion in our travel times for the Samoans and especially for the tourists who come to Samoa, who keep thinking of the New Zealand and Australian time zones."

Church bells will ring and carol services will herald the changeover time.

To help win public support, the government declared employers must still pay workers for the missing Friday, although banks will not be allowed to charge interest for the lost day.

Countries are free to choose whether the dateline passes to the east or west, and Samoa's decision will mean all new maps will need to change.

The vast nation of China uses one national time zone while Australia is a mesh, particularly with summer daylight savings time that sees southern Adelaide city move from half an hour behind the eastern states to an hour in front of far northeastern Queensland.

But some tourism operators are worried Samoa will lose business by losing its position as the last place on earth to see the sunset each day, although it will now be one of the first places to see in each new day.

Samoa, a country of about 180,000 people, used to be same time zone as New Zealand Australia but went back a day in 1892, celebrating July 4 twice and aligning itself with the United States.

The date change is not the first major change in Samoa in recent years. In 2009, the country switched to driving on the left hand side of the road from the right hand side, in line with New Zealand and Australia.如果你是週五讀到這篇文章，那麼你一定不是在薩摩亞。

這個南太平洋袖珍島國丟掉了12月30日（週五）這一天，因爲它拋棄了和美國的時區聯盟，將自己的時間移前了24小時，以和亞洲、新西蘭和澳大利亞保持一致。

在新年前夕那天，薩摩亞將移至國際日期變更線西側。國際日期變更線是大致沿180度經線穿過太平洋的一條折線。薩摩亞總理圖伊拉埃帕•薩伊萊萊•馬利埃萊額奧伊稱此舉將方便薩摩亞和主要貿易伙伴進行交易。

週五，他告訴新西蘭廣播電臺說：“我們再也不會有人週日在教堂閉上眼祈禱時接到來自新西蘭和澳大利亞週一打的電話。同樣我們週五打電話時對方也不會已經外出度假過週末了。”

“這會爲薩摩亞人、特別是爲來薩摩亞的遊客免去很多旅行時間上的困惑，遊客們老以爲是在新西蘭和澳大利亞的時區裏。”

在時間變更時，薩摩亞的教堂鐘聲將會響起，人們將高唱頌歌，來宣佈這一時刻的來臨。

爲了贏得民衆的支持，政府宣佈僱主仍須支付工人在“失去的”星期五的工資，但不允許銀行收取失去的那天的貸款利息。

國家可自由選擇是位於國際日期變更線的東側還是西側，薩摩亞的這一決定意味着所有的新地圖將需要做出變動。

領土廣闊的中國是全國使用同一個時區的時間，澳大利亞則是不同地區採用不同時區的時間，特別是採用了夏令時，使得南部的阿德萊德市從原來的比東部各州晚半個小時，變成比東北部的昆士蘭州早一個小時。

不過一些旅遊境外業務操作員擔心薩摩亞會因爲不再是地球上最後一個看見每天的日落的國度而失去商機，儘管如今薩摩亞將是最早迎接每個新的一天的國度之一。

薩摩亞是一個擁有18萬人口的國家，它曾經和新西蘭、澳大利亞位於同一時區，但在1892年後退了一天，慶祝了兩次美國獨立日（7月4日），並和美國結成同盟。

日期變更並不是近些年薩摩亞做出的首個重大變動。2009年該國將汽車靠左手邊行駛改成靠右手邊行駛，以和新西蘭、澳大利亞保持一致。