The Island of Samao has canceled Friday. When its citizens go to bed Thursday night they will wake up on Saturday morning. WIll they get dressed and go to church? Or will they wait and go to church on Sunday? Are they protesting this arbitrary disruption of the natural week?
6 comments:
Samoa is changing to a nearby time zone (actually it is the same time zone as every island nation surrounding it with the exception of American Samoa). I know it seems like they are canceling Friday but they really are not. What is happening to all Samoans tomorrow is precisely the same as what would happen to any of them who traveled in any direction but east, who, for example, took the two hour plane trip to Tonga.
Because the earth is a globe a date line must exist, and traveling across it necessarily must involve changing the day of the week. All Samoa is doing is reversing an essentially arbitrary political decision made 119 years ago. Essentially this is no different than a U.S. state deciding to be in a different nearby time zone.
If Samoa had instead added an extra Friday, or if Samoa subsequent to this time zone change tried to AGAIN cancel a day (either of which change would move them to an extra-terrestrial time zone), it would correctly be accused of changing the days-of-the-week.
Here's another way to look at it:
"The original shift to the east side of the line was made in 1892, when Samoa celebrated July 4 twice, giving a nod to Independence Day in the U.S."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2103243,00.html#ixzz1hwxrMwS
When in 1892 an EXTRA weekday was added, did that cause a problem similar to the one you are describing? If so, what Samoa is now doing FIXES that problem and is long overdue, right?
But should the original change have caused a big problem? Does it not mean that since 1892 the SDA Samoans have NOT been observing the 7th day sabbath?
Since by canceling Friday, the calendar Sunday is actually Saturday (assuming that prior to canceling Friday, Saturday was in fact Saturday which Steelikat, brings into question), strictly observant SDAs must now observe the 7th day Sabbath on Sunday. Does that mean that all the Sunday keepers who continue to keep Sunday but are now in fact keeping Saturday have become ipso facto Sabbath observers - freed from the mark of the beast?
The decision to give Friday the fatality is not to punish the hard-working citizens of Samoa, but to align them in the time zone as their trading partners – Australia, New Zealand, China and Tonga – as they have been a day behind for many years.im sharing some informative information with you.
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The 1892 change that resulted in an 8 day week corrected an error and placed Samoa in the Western hemisphere time where it belongs. The proposed but not implemented change in 1922 and the 2011 actual deletion of a Friday moved Samoa into Eastern Hemi time where it does not belong.
There were no Adventists in Samoa in 1892 so no one debated the change from a Sabbath point of view.
I support the decision to keep worshiping on the 7th day, regardless of what the state calls that day. This keeps Samoans going to Sabbath services during the same day as their fellow Adventists in American Samoa which is very close by.
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