White Sunday is a holiday in Samoa, falling on the second Sunday in October. It is a day for parents and communities to acknowledge and celebrate childhood by hosting special programs during church services which include scriptural recitations ("tauloto"), Biblical story reenactments, and creative dance performances. Children receive gifts (often new clothing and/or school supplies) on White Sunday and are allowed privileges normally reserved for elders, such as being the first to be served food at family meal time.
On White Sunday, Samoan women and children dress completely in white clothing. Some of them trim the clothes with the other two colors of the Samoan flag, red and blue. Men will wear white shirts with either white slacks or the traditional 'ie faitaga form of the lavalava. If a lavalava is worn it need not be white. White Sunday is also celebrated in Tonga.
White Sunday is celebrated by Samoan congregations and families throughout ethnic Samoan expatriate communities.
In the Samoan language the holiday is called "Lotu Tamaiti," literally "Children's Service" or "Prayer for Children."
There are differing opinions in regards to the origin of this holiday. Some believe White Sunday to be a Christian adaptation of an indigenous pre-contact celebration of certain planting and harvesting seasons. Others assert that the holiday coincides with a family celebration that became widespread in the 1920s in commemoration of Samoans who succumbed to the influenza epidemic of 1919; this epidemic, introduced through the ambivalence of the New Zealand colonial administration, took the lives of 1/5 to 1/4 of the Samoan population, many of them children.
New Zealand hip-hop artist Mareko has released an album named after it.
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White March, Green March (both from the verb), Pink Friday (a music album), Blue October, Black Winter (this last two, music bands), White Summer (a song), Red August (a film), Red April, Black Summer, Blue Spring (this last three, books, and the last also a film), Yellow Spring, Green Spring, Silver Spring (this last four, mainly places in the US), also exist but do not refer to a date. They are marked with a slash but not coloured. |