...in Samoa:

On Thursday night, it will be December 29 when they go to bed and Saturday Dec 31 when they wake up - meaning they'll skip Friday forever.

This neat bit of time travel is the result of a very contemporary concern: trade and economic relations with Pacific neighbors Australia and New Zealand, who are currently nearly a day ahead on the clock.

Now, with the disappearance of Friday, Samoa will shift west of the international dateline and share the same date and time as its two key partners.

I know this is a perfectly logical thing to do, and the explanation makes perfect sense, but this still blows my mind on some basic, superstitious level.