Samoa, the country formerly known as Western Samoa (to differentiate it from American Samoa), is going to leap forward a day on December 29. Samoa will move the International Date Line, which has no official arbiter, so that it shares the day with Australia and New Zealand. At midnight on December 29, the day with change from December 29 to December 31.
Samoa once maintained connections with the United States and thus wanted to be at the tail-end of the day in America. However, now that economic and migration ties have increased with Australia and New Zealand, Samoa wants to share the day with those Oceanic countries. This is reminiscent of Kiribati's relocation of the International Date Line in 1995. (The above image is the flag of Samoa, which includes the Southern Cross, a feature of the Australia flag and New Zealand flag)
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