White Sunday in Samoa and Tonga
White Sunday in Samoa and Tonga is held on October 13. Celebrated on the second Sunday in October. This event in the second decade of the month October is annual. Help us
White Sunday celebrates childhood through the hosting of special programs during church services including Biblical story reenactments, recitations and dance performances. On this day, many children are allowed privileges including being served first during meal time. It is also celebrated in American Samoa, Tokelau and Tonga.
Some say it is a Christian adaptation of an indigenous pre-colonial-contact celebration of certain planting and harvesting seasons. Others say the holiday coincides with a family celebration that became widespread in the 1920s in commemoration of Samoans who succumbed to the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Similar holidays and events, festivals and interesting facts
Arbor Day in Samoa on November 1 (Celebrated on the first Friday in November);
Boxing Day on December 26 (Belgium, Fiji, The Bahamas, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Samoa...);
Presidents' Day on February 17 (USA, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands USA, Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands)