Cook Islands: why Christmas 1899 lasted two days
The Cook Islands, an island group in the South Pacific, changed their calendar count at Christmas in 1899. A law instructed them to give two successive days the date 25 December.
The instruction survives in a law
The Christmas Day Act of 1899 is reproduced on page 20 of a 1900 New Zealand parliamentary report. It directs that New Zealand’s 25 and 26 December be counted as one date, 25 December, in the Cook Islands. Tuesday the 26th would follow.
Changing dates without travelling
Travellers crossing the ocean might have to adjust their calendar. Here, the local rule changed: people stayed on their islands while the name given to the day changed. The law lets us trace the decision without relying on a line in an atlas.
- 25 December
- 25 December, again
- Tuesday 26 December
Why our outline says 1900
The law dates from 1899; the report reproducing it was published in 1900. The Admiralty notes also discuss a British chart from 1900. These dates refer to different things. A label in the outline series should not replace the date of the calendar change.
What about Niue?
Niue appears alongside the Cook Islands in some accounts and in the cartographic material received by this project. But the law we consulted does not establish that Niue followed the same instruction. We treat Niue separately and do not assign it this repeated Christmas without its own evidence.
Find it on the map and compare the outlines →
Sources and scope
- AJHR 1900 · A–3 · Christmas Day Act 1899p. 20 · No. 10 (1899); contexto / context p. 15
- Hydrographic Department · Notes on the History of the Date or Calendar LineReimpresión / Reprint 1930 · PDF pp. 4–5
The law is reproduced on page 20 of the 1900 parliamentary report. It does not establish that Niue followed the same order. The outline’s 1900 label refers to a map publication, not the date of this law. Evidence record